16 



BULLETIN 693^ TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



MANURIAL PRACTICE. 



Farm manure is regarded as an important by-product of the farm 

 in the beet districts of Utah and Idaho. Of the men who were 

 interviewed, 93.6 per cent had applied manure to the land the pre- 

 ceding season and gave estimates of the value of the manure in the 

 yards as weU as of the total time rec-[uired to haul this by-product 

 to the field. (See Table VI.) It is the general practice to utilize 

 practically all of the manure available on the farm, and occasionally 

 the operator supplements the home supply by hauling from a near-by 

 feed yard or livery barn. Our records show that from one-third to 

 one-half of the beet land was treated with an annual application of 

 farm manure. Without exception the sugar beet gave evidence of 

 direct benefit from the application of manure. In most cases the 

 manure was hauled from the yard to the field in wagons and scat- 

 tered by hand. In the Provo group the manure spreader was used 

 by 41 per cent of the operators. The hauling was done almost 

 entirely din"ing the winter and early spring months. There is no 

 other work to engage the attention of the farmer at this season of the 

 year, which may explain the common practice of hauling with a 

 wagon. He has plenty of time in which to complete the task, and 

 an investment in a manure spreader has seemed to be unnecessary. 

 To the same reason may be attributed the relatively small crew 

 assigned to this task. On a majority of the farms this operation 

 was done by one man with two horses and a wagon. Where the 

 spreader takes the place of the wagon three horses are usually 

 employed, and frequently an extra man assists with the loading. 



Farm manure was sometimes applied to the potato land. Sugar 

 beets were then grown the following year. The claim is made that 

 manure often contains a large number of weed seeds, which germi- 

 nate and interfere to a considerable extent with beet culture. If 

 manure is scattered on potato land, the noxious weeds appear 

 largely the first season and can l)e eradicated much more readily. 





Table VI 



. — Manurial practice. 













Year. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 farm 

 records. 



Acres 

 ma- 

 nured 

 per 

 farm. 



Tons 



applied 



per 



acre. 



Average crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Labor 

 cost 

 per 

 acre. 



District. 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 



Garland 



1914-15 



1914-15 



1915 



74 

 54 

 34 



6.9 

 7.9 

 10.0 



20.2 

 17.2 

 15.5 



1.4 

 1.4 

 1.6 



2.48 

 2. .59 

 2.4S 



21.5 

 21.5 

 19.2 



39.7 

 38.8 

 ."^4. 5 



$7.87 





7.96 



Idaho Falls 



7.29 









The Garland farmers apphed manui'e to approximately one-thii'd 

 of the beet land, the Provo operators sHghtly more than one-third, 

 and the Idaho Falls growers slightly less than one-half. The appli- 

 cation of manure varied from 15.5 tons per acre in the Idaho Falls 



