GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. U7, 
each day, so as to prevent rapid drying out and the formation of 
hard clods. As a rule, this is done by the same man who does the 
plowing by switching from the plow and using the harrow for a 
time each day. A few men attach small narrow harrows to their 
plows. The practice of harrowing the land: as soon as it is plowed 
is an efficient one, as much good can be accomplished with the harrow 
at that time. 
Spring-tooth harrows are not used to any great extent in this 
region, as is shown by the fact that only 103 aeres of land were har- 
rowed with these implements. Most men who use a spring-tooth 
harrow use it in place of a disk. One man with a 4-horse team was 
the crew mostly used in spring-tooth harrowing, and the cost per 
acre to do this work averages $1.05 per acre harrowed, or 5.7 acres 
per 10-hour day for a crew of one man and four horses. 
ROLLING PRACTICE. 
The practice of rolling land before planting the beet seed is not 
general in this region, as is shown by the fact that only 27.8 per cent 
of the 305 farmers visited reported rolling land before planting, and 
less than 21 per cent of the total area planted to beets was rolled. 
before planting. This might vary somewhat with different seasons, 
as rolling to firm the land for a good seed bed would be necessary in 
some years and not in others; however, in this region there is seldom 
much trouble with lack of arsine § in seed beds for nes Rolling 
is usually done to break clods. 
The average 10-hour day’s work at rolling by one man with a 
2-horse team covers almost 14 acres of land; hence to roll 1 acre of 
land requires an average of 0.71 hour of man labor and 1.49 hours of 
horse labor. 
Of the 84 men apsiting the use of rollers, 50 sed 10-foot rollers, 
25 used 8-foot rollers, 6 used 12-foot rollers, and 3 used rollers less 
than 8 feet long. Data were not obtained as to the number of smooth 
and of corrugated rollers. 
Of the 84 men using rollers, 80 hitched two horses to the roller; 
and the average man rolled his land 1.13 times, at a cost of 29 cents 
per acre. 
DITCHING PRACTICE. 
The cost of maintaining the small laterals, including the work of 
‘cleaning them out and the making of such new small ditches as may 
be necessary for the distribution of the water in the field so that it 
can be run into the furrows between the rows of beets, is only 18 cents 
per acre. This required 0.32 hour of man labor and 0.61 hour of 
82031 ° —Bull. 785—18——3 
