GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 31 



COST OF SEED FOR SUGAR BEETS. 



The seed for the sugar-beet crop is furnished to the farmer by the 

 sugar company contracting for the beets. This seed has been sold to 

 the farmers at 10 cents per pound for a number of years, and the 

 quantity of seed per acre is often specified. Most farmers plant the 

 amount per acre that the company specifies; therefore the cost per 

 acre for seed runs very nearly the same for each farm. The cost of 

 seed per ton of beets produced is very variable, as there is variation 

 in the tonnage per acre. For individual farms the cost of seed per 

 ton of beets produced varied from 10 cents to more than 60 cents. 

 Detailed information gathered from 305 farms growing 8,849 acres 

 of beets is as follows : Pounds of seed per acre, 17.2 ; cost of seed per 

 pound, 10 cents ; cost of seed per acre, $1.72 ; cost of seed per ton of 

 beets produced, 16 cents. 



COST OF MACHINERY. 



The cost of machinery varies greatly in accordance with the 

 amount of machinery the man owns and the area of beets that he 

 cultivates. Some growers had high-priced machinery and a small 

 area in beets, so the cost of machinery per acre ran very high ; in some 

 instances it was more than $15 per acre. To grow a crop of beets, a 

 farmer should own the machinery or be able to rent certain machines 

 when needed. To own all machinery is not always advisable where 

 the area in beets is less than 10 acres. 



The depreciation of machinery on various farms varied from 10 

 to 25 per cent of the original value, depending on the acreage of 

 beets to be tended by one machine and the type of machinery owned. 

 The grower should either own or have the use of the following ma- 

 chinery : Plow, harrow, level, beet drill, beet cultivator, beet wagon 

 (with box of a special type for the automatic dumping of the beets), 

 beet puller, hoes, shovels, topping knives, and beet forks. In some 

 cases a roller and a manure spreader should be added to this 

 equipment. 



It is rather hard to get an exact figure for the cost of machinery for 

 beets, as farmers use the same wagons, harrows, plows, etc., on other 

 crops, and allowance for this has to be made; but it is possible to 

 get a reasonably accurate estimate of the depreciation and repair 

 cost of machinery that is chargeable to beets by comparing the 

 acreage in other crops. These charges were figured separately for 

 each farm, and Table X shows the results of the data furnished 

 by 305 farmers as to the costs chargeable to the sugar-beet crop for 

 the use of machinery. 



Table X is necessarily more or less of an approximation, and there 

 may be some items of cost not enumerated ; however, the costs were 



