GROWING SUGAR BEETS TN THE BILLINGS REGION. 35 



who showed a loss on beets yielding over 12 tons per acre were only 

 three in number and grew only small areas, averaging less than 6 

 acres each. Each had used heavy applications of manure and had 

 given it a value of $1 per ton in the yard; the investment in ma- 

 chinery was also high in each case. The average cost for their 

 machinery was nearly $12 per acre, while the average for the region 

 was $2.64 per acre. Unless land is capable of yielding better than an 

 8-ton crop of beets it is advisable not to plant beets on it, but to plant 

 some crop that will not require so much labor for production. Cheap 

 and poor lands are not adapted to beets or any crop that requires 

 much labor per acre. The only case where a man can afford to grow 

 beets on land that does not produce well is where he owns the land 

 and is trying to eradicate weeds by careful cultivation. He must 

 have some return other than that received from the beet crop. If 

 the grower is willing to work for less than the price figured in this 

 bulletin as the cost of growing beets or is an exceptional manager of 

 labor he can make a return from a beet crop that is less than 8 tons 

 an acre, but it is an uncertain speculation. It is admitted, however, 

 that there are many exceptions and that some men can show a profit 

 from a small yield, as they are growing the beets at a time when 

 they would otherwise be unemployed. Beets afford a means whereby 

 the farmers of this region are able almost to double the length of the 

 season that they have field work to do, for there is no other common 

 row-tilled crop, and hay and grain farming does not afford labor 

 early in the summer at beet-cultivation time or late in the autumn 

 when beets are to be harvested. A farmer's profits often depend on 

 the length of the season of crop labor. There is no doubt that on a 

 larger area the cost per acre for machinery would average less, as the 

 investment total would need to be no larger. If these men were 

 able to pay for labor and get a return for the manure used, there is 

 no doubt that their loss is only a figurative one. If they had allowed 

 only 50 cents per ton for the yard value of manure they would have 

 shown a profit on their beets, as the average loss per acre was very 

 small. 



A few growers made a small profit per acre on beets that yielded 

 about 8 tons per acre, and one that had a yield of 7 tons made a 

 small profit. None of these men had any charge for manuring, and 

 most of them were share renters. All reported rather rapid work 

 and did not go over the ground a very great number of times. More 

 than half of them did their own hand labor and reported doing it at 

 a rapid rate, and the charge for hand labor in some of these cases 

 was not over $12.50 per acre. These men show that in rare instances 

 where the land is not hard to handle and the man works very rapidly 

 it is possible to show a profit on beets that yield 8 tons per acre, but 

 this is not possible in most cases and not possible on small areas 



