COST OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS IIS: UTAH AXD IDAHO. 29 



cient to cut the crowns of the alfalfa plants. The tops are then 

 allowed to dry out and the ground is replowed at a later date to a 

 depth of 8 or 9 mches. Crowning alfalfa occurred on 8 per cent of the 

 land planted to heets in the Garland area. Two and three-tenths per 

 cent of the beet land was crowned at Idaho Falls, and as much as 22 

 per cent in the Twin Falls area, where the labor requirements for this 

 operation were only slightly less than the labor for plowing. How- 

 ever, in the Garland district the reverse was the case. 



Occasionally plowing is repeated in order to bring rough or uneven 

 land into suitable condition for planting. Two plowings were neces- 

 sary apparently in those cases where the ground was crowned and 

 later given a deeper plowing in preparation for sugar beets. The 

 work was divided quite largely between the autumn and spring sea- 

 sons. The usual depth of plowing was approximately 9 to 10 inches. 



There was considerable variation in the types of plows that were 

 used. In the Lehi area the work was done mainly with sulky plows, 

 the usual crew consisting of one man and three horses. Three types 

 were used at Garland — namely, walking plows, sulky plows, and 

 two-way plows. The most common crew was one man and three 

 horses. The riding sulky plows were used quite extensively at Idaho 

 Falls, whereas at Twin Falls two-way plows were used quite gen- 

 erally. The crew size was the same for both of the latter areas, con- 

 sisting of one man and three horses. Plowing was done at an average 

 rate of from 1.6 acres per day to 2.1 acres per day. The average rate 

 for crowning was approximately 2.6 acres per day in the Twin Falls 

 area. A day's work in all of these districts approximated nine and 

 one-half hours. 



The majority of the beet growers harrowed daily all of the land that 

 was broken out that day. Fall-plowed land is liable to wind drift 

 in this region. Many operators made a practice of harrowing up to 

 the plow each half day, to prevent undue evaporation of moisture. 

 This practice leaves the surface of the field in much better tilth, and 

 subsequent culture can be carried out much more effectively than 

 when the land is allowed to dry out before harrowing. The hot sun 

 and rapid evaporation of moisture is likely to form hard clods if har- 

 rowing is not done soon after plowing. 



In the preparation of land the disk harrow was used on relatively 

 few farms in the Lehi, Garland, and Idaho Falls districts, but approxi- 

 mately 52 per cent of the area planted to beets in the Twin Falls 

 district was disked. The operators on these farms went over the 

 land an averag-e of 2.3 times. On some farms it was customarv to 

 lap half when going over the field. Where tliis practice was common 

 the two methods, single disk and lap half, have been separated, and 

 the man and horse labor requirements are shown for each method. 

 When the land is rough and cloddy after plowing and harrowing it 



