GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 



15 



do good work in leveling where depressions are wide. A narrow 

 implement will have a tendency to scoop out these places. Four or 

 more horses are needed to handle a large float properly, the average 

 number for the region being a little more than four. The number of 

 horses needed and the efficiency of operation depend upon the size 

 and weight of the float. Some lighter material is commonly used on 

 top of the implement in order that the driver may ride standing or 

 move about, so as to make the leveling more nearly perfect. 



Practically all the growers in the region used some such machine, 

 a total of 8,580 acres (nearly 97 per cent of the area planted to 

 beets) being thus prepared. 



The growers who did not use a box level of this sort used a drag 

 made of overlapping planks. These drags are usually from 3 to 5 



Pig. 2. — Floating sugar-beet land. The homemade implement here shown is used after 

 disking to level the ground and put it into good condition for irrigation. 



feet wide and 8 or 10 feet long. The drag is not considered so effi- 

 cient an implement for leveling land as a level ; the work it does is 

 not so thorough. The drag is a somewhat less expensive implement 

 to make and to operate and it requires less horsepower. The average 

 cost for the 325 acres dragged was 66 cents per acre. 



The average acre of land included under the survey was floated 

 1.82 times at an average cost of 89 cents per acre. This is the equiva- 

 lent of 1.51 hours of man labor and 5.96 hours of horse labor. One 

 man with a 4-horse team can float about 12 acres per day. The 

 average cost is 49 cents per acre, or 0.83 hour of man labor and 3.27 

 hours of horse labor, to go over an acre once with a float. 



Of the farmers who floated their land, 70 per cent went over it 

 twice, 22 per cent floated only once, and the other 8 per cent floated 

 more than twice. In floating twice it is the common custom to float 

 both ways of the field. 



