18 



BULLETIN 693, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



Plowing is an essential step in the preparation of a first-class seed 

 bed for beets. Occasionally some of the fields of the farm may be 

 left in such condition that it is not necessary to plow in the spring, 

 but as a rule this operation is performed by all growers either in the 

 autumn or at the beginning of the next crop year. In this investi- 

 gation two farmers located at Idaho Falls prepared the land and 

 planted beet seed without plowing. These were exceptions to the 

 general practice. A summary of the plowing practice for the re- 

 maining farms will be fomid in Table VIT. 



Table VII. — Plowing practice. 



Garland 



Provo 



Idaho Falls 



Year. 



Num- 

 ber of 

 farm 

 records. 



Acres 

 plowed 



per 

 farm. 



Average crew. 



Hours per acre. 



Man. 



Horse. 



Man. 



Horse. 



1914-15 



1914-15 



1915 



79 

 58 

 35 



18.1 

 14.3 

 19.62 



1 

 1 

 1 



3.3 

 3.2 

 3.5 



5 

 6 



4.4 



16.3 

 18.9 

 14.6 



Cost 

 per 



$2.47 

 3.03 

 2.34 



Fig. 3. — Fall plowing stubble land in Utah County, Utah. For the Provo and Garland districts this 

 operation was performed mainly in the autumn. 



The 1-furrow sulky plow with a 14-iiich bottom appeared in 108 

 farm reports, thus indicating that this type was used very generally 

 in these districts. Forty-one records included the 2-way plow, while 

 21 reports show that the soil was turned with an ordinary walking 

 plow. A minor part of the plowing was done with two, three, and 

 four furrow gangs. The dominant crew consisted of one man and 

 three horses. This combination was in evidence on 121 farms. In 

 contrast with the average figures in the foregoing table, this crew did 

 the plowing at a cost of $2.38 per acre at Garland, $2.86 per acre at 

 Provo, and $2.19 at Idaho Falls. The horsepower was increased to 



