2 BULLETIN 785, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
in the irrigated areas of Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Carbon 
Counties. Usable data were taken on 305 farms representing 
a sugar-beet crop of 8,849 acres, being about 36 per cent of the 
entire acreage grown for this factory during the year 1915. This 
acreage 1s generally distributed throughout the entire area and is 
believed to be typical of the region at the time the survey was made. 
The costs here given may not be accurate for present conditions. 
There have been, however, no changes in the methods of handling 
the crop tending to reduce the labor necessary to produce it; there- 
fore, by readjustment to allow for prevailing labor prices these data 
can be applied to the present cost of production. 
Records were taken on all types of farms of the area except such 
as seemed not typical of the region. A labor-income farm surv ey 
had been made of this region in 1915 by the same men who had 
charge of this survey. As the leases are for only one year and the 
owners often do not live in the region, data on many of the tenanted 
farms are hard to get,:-but records were obtained on 133 tenant farms, 
of which 77 were farms upon which the tenant had farmed but one 
vear. After eliminating records of doubtful value, 305 records re- 
main, on which-the statements of this bulletin are based. 
PROCEDURE. 
The data presented in this bulletin, though not taken from sys- 
tematic records kept on the farms, are based upon a large number 
of estimates given by beet growers. The results represent the best 
judgment and experience of men who have been actively engaged in 
the production of this crop. The schedules were filled out by well- 
trained enumerators and not only afforded complete information per- 
taining to farm practice and farm costs in the production of sugar 
beets but also furnished: data showing the outcome of the entire 
business of the farm for the particular crop year to which ey ap- 
plied. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION STUDIED. 
The portion of the Yellowstone Valley covered by this survey 
(fig. 1) consists of two parts, viz, the Huntley Irrigation Project 
and the irrigated area extending from Billings as far west as the 
town of Park City. 
HUNTLEY IRRIGATION PROJECT. 
The Huntley Irrigation Project occupies a strip of land along the 
south side of the Yellowstone River, from Huntley, Mont., eastward 
to Pompeys Pillar, a distance of about 22 miles. This strip of land 
has an average width of 34 to + miles and comprises an area of 32,405 
acres. This land was originally divided by the Government into 
