GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 



19 



ROLLING LAND AFTER BEETS ARE PLANTED. 



After being planted, 4,935 acres, or 56 per cent of the total area in 

 beets, was rolled. This rolling is usually done after the beets have 

 come through the ground and before they have grown very much. It 

 cost 31 cents to roll an acre of beets, or 0.77 of an hour of man 

 labor and 1.55 hours of horse labor. Boiling is done for two pur- 

 poses: (1) To break any crust that may have formed on the ground 

 and enable many beets to come up that would not otherwise be able 

 to get through, and (2) to break and crush clods that would be likely 

 to be thrown on the beet row at the first cultivation. Most growers 

 use corrugated rollers run crosswise of the beet rows. (Fig. 4.) 

 Very few use smooth rollers, as they are not as efficient for breaking 





^*^98fl0(pfri;. 





Fig. 4. 



-A corrugated roller used on beet land. A good type of roller for firming 



seed bed. 



the 



a crust on the land. Some growers rolled the beets after they were 

 blocked and thinned, so as to firm down and level the soil and aid in 

 cultivating. 



By far the greater number of growers use only two horses in roll- 

 ing beets. One man with two horses can roll an average of 13 acres 

 of land per 10-hour day. 



After the seed was planted. 178 of the men rolled a part of their 

 beet land, and only 27 of these rolled the land more than once. 



More rolling is done in some years than in others, because there 

 is much variation in the seasons; for example, should a heavy rain 

 occur between the time of planting the beet seeds and their germina- 



