8 BULLETIN 735, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tion of acrop. The rainfall in this region is not heavy, and manures 
do not rot and become available plant food as rapidly as they do in 
more humid regions. In averaging the result of the numerous 
answers upon this point it was decided that the nearest correct 
method of distributing the cost of manuring was to charge 40 per 
cent to the first crop, 40 per cent to the second crop, and 20 per cent 
to the crop grown the third year after the manure was applied. Some 
men favored a longer period of distribution. That the manure on 
land was worth as much to the second crop as it was to the first was 
the almost unanimous opinion. As many farmers stated that the sec- 
ond year was better than the first as the reverse, the usual answer being 
that the two crops were equally helped. Considering this, the dis- 
tribution stated above as to cost of manure and manuring seems to be 
justified. That is, on the land where beets were grown but one year 
after manuring, the charge would be 40 per cent of the value of the 
manure in the yard and 40 per cent of the cost of the labor of spread-_ 
ing the same. Ifthe land had been manured for two years in succes- 
sion before planting the beets, the charge would be 80 per cent of 
the yard value plus 80 per cent of the cost of application. If land 
had been manured for the three years previous to the growing of the 
1915 crop of beets the charge would be 100 per cent of the cost of 
the manure and all the labor charges. The cost of manure and 
manuring was charged to every farm in this manner. Commercial 
fertilizers were not used, and the growing of special. green-manure 
crops is almost unknown; however, a form of green-crop manuring 
exists. It is common to plow under alfalfa that has some green 
growth when being plowed. Most men who practiced this considered 
a green crop of alfalfa as beneficial as a 15-ton per acre coat of barn- 
yard manure. Of the 1,640 acres of alfalfa broken and planted to 
sugar beets in 1915, a large part of it had some green growth at the 
time of plowing. 
The value placed upon manures and the fact that commercial fer- 
tilizers are not used is easily explained when the character of the 
soil is taken into consideration. This is a soil that runs rather low 
in humus but relatively high in mineral nutrients. 
Sugar-beet growers almost without exception used their total avail- 
able manure upon the land to be planted immediately to beets. 
This might in part be due to the fact that no other cultivated crop 
is grown to any great extent by most of these men, but their opinion 
was that the manure was most readily available and most beneficial 
when applied to beets. 
The methods of applying the manure varied, but most of the 
growers used wagons and forks. Only 98 growers used manure 
spreaders, while 207 used farm wagons. The manure is mostly 
