COST OF PRODUCING SUGAR BIDETS IN UTAH A:^J■D IDAHO. 



33 



PLANTING. 



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

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

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

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

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

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

 There are several advantages in this arrangement. It is very 

 evident that a man who operates a beet di'ill regularly can do a 

 better grade of work than the man who plants a six or eight acre 

 tract, which rec|uires a fraction of a day, or at most not more than 



Fig. s.— Putting in beet seed with a 4-ro\v drill. 



a full day, per year. Furthermore, the small farmer is not required 

 to carry an investment in a piece of machinery which is used only 

 for a few liours each year. 



A direct charge of 50 cents per acre is made to cover the cost of 

 planting. Beet seed is sold to the farmers at the rate of 15 cents 

 per pound, and approximately 15 pounds are planted per acre. The 

 farm operator hauls the seed from the factory or warehouse to the 

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

 not prcssmg, or it is made a secondary feature of some special trip 

 to town. The item of hauling seed is cared for under "overhead 

 expense." In the Idaho district the farmers did their own planting. 

 Beet seed is universally put in with a 4-row drill. It requhes one 



