GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 17 



each day, so as to prevent rapid drying out and the formation of 

 hard clods. As a rule, this is done by the same man who does the 

 plowing by switching from the plow and using the harrow for a 

 time each day. A few men attach small narrow harrows to their 

 plows. The practice of harrowing the land' as soon as it is plowed 

 is an efficient one, as much good can be accomplished with the harrow 

 at that time. 



Spring-tooth harrows are not used to any great extent in this 

 region, as is shown by the fact that only 103 acres of land were har- 

 rowed with these implements. Most men who use a spring-tooth 

 harrow use it in place of a disk. One man with a 4-horse team was 

 the crew mostly used in spring-tooth harrowing, and the cost per 

 acre to do this work averages $1.05 per acre harrowed, or 5.7 acres 

 per 10-hour day for a crew of one man and four horses. 



ROLLING PRACTICE. 



The practice of rolling land before planting the beet seed is not 

 general in this region, as is shown by the fact that only 27.8 per cent 

 of the 305 farmers visited reported rolling land before planting, and 

 less than 21 per cent of the total area planted to beets was rolled 

 before planting. This might vary somewhat with different seasons, 

 as rolling to firm the land for a good seed bed would be necessary in 

 some years and not in others ; however, in this region there is seldom 

 much trouble with lack of firmness in seed beds for beets. Boiling 

 is usually done to break clods. 



The average 10-hour day's work at rolling by one man with a 

 2-horse team covers almost 14 acres of land ; hence to roll 1 acre of 

 land requires an average of 0.71 hour of man labor and 1.49 hours of 

 horse labor. 



Of the 84 men reporting the use of rollers, 50 used 10-foot rollers, 

 25 used 8-foot rollers, 6 used 12-foot rollers, and 3 used rollers less 

 than 8 feet long. Data were not obtained as to the number of smooth 

 and of corrugated rollers. 



Of the 84 men using rollers, 80 hitched two horses to the roller ; 

 and the average man rolled his land 1.13 times, at a cost of 29 cents 

 per acre. 



DITCHING PRACTICE. 



The cost of maintaining the small laterals, including the work of 

 cleaning them out and the making of such new small ditches as may 

 be necessary for the distribution of the water in the field so that it. 

 can be run into the furrows between the rows of beets, is only 13 cents 

 per acre. This required 0.32 hour of man labor and 0.61 hour of 



82031°— Bull. 735—18 3 



