GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN UTAH AND IDAHO. 



25 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



These materials are not used extensively in the irrigated districts 

 of the west. Occasionally this item of cost enters into the farm record, 

 but as a rule very few men buy and apply commercial fertilizers in the 

 intermountam country, especially for the improvement of the beet 

 land. The records for 1914-15 did not indicate that any commercial 

 materials had been purchased. 



PLANTING. 



In the beet-growing districts of Utah it is customary for the 

 factories to own and operate the beet drills. Usually the planting 

 is not done by the individual grower, but by some party employed 

 by the sugar company to do this work on a number of farms within 

 a given area. The men engaged for this purpose usually have small 

 farms and are therefore ui a position to do some outside work. 

 There are several advantages in this arrangement. It is very evi- 

 dent that the man who operates a drill for several days in succession 

 can do a better grade of work than the man who plants a 6 or 10 

 acre tract which requires a fraction of a day or at most not more 

 than a fuU day per year. Furthermore, the smaU farmer is not 

 required to carry an investment in a piece of machinery which is 

 used only a few hours each year. A direct charge of 50 cents per 

 acre is made to cover the .planting and the rent of the driU. Beet 

 seed is sold to the farmers at the rate of 15 cents per pound, and 

 about 15 poimds per acre are planted. A few growers used slightly 

 less than 15 pounds per acre, while some exceeded the standard 

 quantity. The farmer hauls the seed from the factory or warehouse 

 to the farm. This work is done at a season of the year when the 

 fields do not require attention, or is made a secondary feature of 

 some special trip to town. The item of hauling seed is cared for 

 under the heading "Overhead charges." 



The operators who did their own planting gave estimates on this 

 practice, and the results are reported in Table XIV. 



Table XIV. — Planting practice. 



District. 



Year. 



Number 

 of farm 

 records. 



Acres. 



planted 



per farm. 



Hours per acre. 



Total 



cost per 



acre. 



Man. 



Horse. 



Garland 



1915 



1914-15 



1915 



5 22. 80 



0.74 

 .89 

 .92 



1.48 

 1.78 

 1.84 



SO. 28 



Provo 



S 

 24 



21.38 

 19.50 



.35 



Idaho Falls 



.37 







The rows are uniformly 20 inches apart. In each district the 

 crews consisted of one man and two horses (fig. 5). It will be noted 

 that the estimates for Garland and Provo were hmited to a few 



