18 BULLETIN ‘735, teas: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
herse labor. The factors that affect the cost are the distance from 
the main lateral or ditch, the size of the fields, and the lay of the 
land. Some teamwork is used in plowing out ditches, but they must 
be cleaned out with shovels. A total of 8,666 acres was considered in 
the above as having a separate cost for ditch cleaning, six farms 
-being so located that no extra work was required to get water to 
the beet field. This is a part of the cost of irrigation. Very few 
growers had any special tools for ditching, and they used common 
walking plows for plowing out ditches. A few had listers; others 
used homemade V drags. 
In taking the records no separate accounting of the man labor and 
the horse labor was made, so no estimate can be given as to the hand 
labor done with shovels in cleaning out the ditches. 
As already stated, the ditch cleaning is very variable, according - 
to the type of ditches necessary to get water to each farm, and no 
comparison can be made as to the efficiency of the methods used by 
the individual farmers. Some seem to use more efficient tools than 
others, but as a general rule this work is governed by the lay of the 
~ land. More work is necessary in scme years than in others, and a 
part of this work is sometimes more in the nature of a permanent 
improvement. 
| PLANTING BEET SEED. 
Of the total of 305 growers in this region all but 3 used drills drawn 
by two horses each that planted four.rows ata time. The other drills 
planted only two rows at a time. With a 4row drill, the average 
area planted per 10-hour day was a little over 10 acres. Planting in 
this region begins as early as possible in the spring, scmetimes the ~ 
early part of April, and lasts until about the first of June. Early- 
planted beets seem to do better than those planted later, but the time 
_ necessary to prepare the land does not always permit early planting. 
Where the field*is very large it 1s the custom to plant at different 
times, so that the thinning will be distributed over a longer period. 
It is not advisable to let the beets stand too long before thinning. 
The most of the acreage in this area is planted in rows 20 inches 
apart. A few men planted rows 18 and 22 inches apart, so that it was 
possible to make a deeper irrigation ditch between the wide rows and 
irrigate only between alternate pairs of rows. This custom is net 
very common in this region, as the soil is heavy and water does not 
quickly soak across the rows where the furrows are very far apart. 
Also the land in most instances has a good slope for irrigation. and > 
there is no need of a deep furrow or large head of water for irrigat- 
ing between the rows of sugar beets. 
Tt cost 40 cents per acre to plant beet seed, or one hour os man labor 
and two hours of horse labor. 
