GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 35 
who showed a loss on beets yielding over 12 tons per acre were only 
three in number and grew only small areas, averaging less than 6 
acres each. Each had used heavy applications of manure and had 
given it a value of $1 per ton in the yard; the investment in ma- 
chinery was also high in each case. The average cost for their 
machinery was nearly $12 per acre, while the average for the region 
was $2.64 per acre. Unless land is capable of yielding better than an 
8-ton crop of beets it is advisable not to plant beets on it, but to plant 
some crop that will not require so much labor for production. Cheap 
and poor lands are not adapted to beets or any crop that requires 
much labor per acre. The only case where a man can aiford to grow 
beets on land that does not produce well is where he owns the land 
and is trying to eradicate weeds by careful cultivation. He must 
have some return other than that received from the beet crop. If 
the grower is willing to work for less than the price figured in this 
bulletin as the cost of growing beets or is an exceptional manager of 
labor he can make a return from a beet crop that is less than 8 tons 
an acre, but it is an uncertain speculation. It is admitted, however, 
that there are many exceptions and that some men can show a profit 
from a small yield, as they are growing the beets at a time when 
they would otherwise be unemployed. Beets afford a means whereby 
the farmers of this region are able almost to double the length of the 
season that they have field work to do, for there is no other common 
row-tilled crop, and hay and grain farming does not afford labor 
early in the summer at beet-cultivation time or late in the autumn 
when beets are to be harvested. A farmer’s profits often depend on 
the length of the season of crop labor. There is no doubt that on a 
larger area the cost per acre for machinery would average less, as the 
investment total would need to be no larger. If these men were 
able to pay for labor and get a return for the manure used, there is 
no doubt that their loss is only a figurative one. If they had allowed 
only 50 cents per ton for the yard value of manure they would have 
shown a profit on their beets, as the average loss per acre was very 
small. 
A few growers made a small profit per acre on beets that yielded 
about 8 tons per acre, and one that had a yield of 7 tons made a 
small profit. None of these men had any charge for manuring, and 
most of them were share renters. All reported rather rapid work 
and did not go over the ground a very great number of times. More 
than half of them did their own hand labor and reported doing it at 
a rapid rate, and the charge for hand labor in some of these cases 
was not over $12.50 per acre. These men show that in rare instances 
where the land is not hard to handle and the man works very rapidly 
it is possible to show a profit on beets that yield 8 tons per acre, but 
this is not possible in most cases and not possible on small areas 
