GROWING SUGAR BEETS IN THE BILLINGS REGION. 13 
to gang plows. The remaining growers did not report the kind of 
plows used. i 
In considering the size of plows used, it was found that of the 310 
plows reported 122 were 16-inch plows, 170 were 14-inch plows, and 
18 were 12-inch plows. (Table V.) 
TaBLE V.—Oost of plowing land for sugar beets with different plows in the 
Billings region in 1915. 
Labor per acre. 
; Area 
Kind of plow. plowed. 
Cost. Man. Horse. 
Acres. Hours Hours. 
VV fail sin een Depp S TAS pep yokes at ea ee ee Ge entekts 272 $3.33 Teh nh bY} 
SOUR. Jesse sa Sas ck SoC ReEee Se ORs ae ae eee errata ee 6, 396 3.10 5.61 19.74 
Gan ceeenean me Seapets Te ee ae ee eke AAI. 2 1,319 1.94 2.85 13.67 
Tamara ainsi re rae ag 764 Qi 5.15 16.81 
UTC CL eT ree eat ein) Pann a ane IN yo eels NA Le 98 ee saya Ree eee Ai | Cee Bes as 
ART) SHBW ETON SE Ss NLR Te cea me ice an gm ER igeahet eee Pa 8, 849 2.90 eel 18.32 
CROWNING ALFALFA SOD IN PREPARING LAND FOR BEETS. 
_ Alfalfa crowning is done in the fall or spring when there is some 
green growth on the alfalfa plants, which when plowed under adds 
to the humus content of the soil. 
A total area of 1,394 acres of alfalfa land was crowned for beet 
growing by 69 farmers. This labor takes about as much time as to 
plow the land. It requires 4.35 hours of man labor and 16.14 hours 
of horse labor to crown 1 acre, and the cost is figured at $2.48 per 
acre. If the work can not be done in the fall it is done as soon as 
possible in the spring, if the land is for beets that year. The plowing 
is to a depth of 3 or 4 inches, which is sufficient to cut off and turn 
over most of the alfalfa plants. The ground is then harrowed. The 
exposed alfalfa roots and crowns soon dry out and die, while if 
plowed to a greater depth many of them would sprout up again. 
After allowing the roots to dry out for a few weeks the land is plowed 
again to a greater depth, with the result that few of the crowns then 
turned under grow again. This method of handling alfalfa sod is 
much better than plowing only once, as it makes a better seed bed 
and does away with much volunteer alfalfa, which would make beet 
cultivation very difficult; also not so many roots are left on top of 
the ground to clog the cultivating machinery. The cost of the extra 
work of crowning is easily saved in the later work of thinning and 
cultivating the beet crop. Most of the growers prefer to crown in the 
_ fall if other work permits, so as to let the crowns dry out over winter 
before turning them under; in actual practice, however, few of them 
were able to do much alfalfa crowning in the fall. Of the total of 
1,640 acres of alfalfa broken and planted in beets, 1,394 acres were 
a 
