16 
BULLETIN 726, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
was not possible to determine the number of men using manure 
spreaders there. Fifty-eight per cent of the Fort Morgan growers 
and 77 per cent of the Greeley farmers used spreaders. 
Table VI. — Data on use of manure for three Colorado districts. 
District. 
Year. 
Num- 
ber of 
farms. 
Acres 
ma- 
nured. 
Tons 
per 
acre. 
Crew. 
Hours per acre. 
Total 
cost 
Man. 
Horse. 
Man. 
Horse. 
per 
acre. 
Rocky Ford . . .... 
1914-15 
1915 
1914-15 
99 
64 
180 
9.12 
17.90 
12.80 
11.82 
14.34 
18.60 
1.5 
1.6 
1.6 
2.56 
3.20 
3.30 
17.67 
15.10 
13.50 
34. 60 
30-80 
27.70 
86.64 
Fort Morgan 
6.26 
5.61 
There was a decided lack of uniformity in all districts with reference 
to size of crew used in handling manure. One hundred and thirty- 
five growers, or approximately 40 per cent of the farms reporting, 
used one man and two horses. Rocky Ford had the largest propor- 
tion of this group. Taking all districts into consideration, there were 
51 men who used a crew of one man and three horses to haul the 
manure, and 25 who hauled with a crew of one man and four horses. 
On 105 farms an extra man was used to assist with the loading. 
The horse power was about equally divided between two, three, and 
four horse crews on these farms. 
About 41 per cent of the land devoted to beets was manured in the 
Rocky Ford district, 47 per cent in the Fort Morgan district, and 49 
per cent in the Greeley district. Rocky Ford had the lowest average 
application per acre, while Greeley had the highest. There was a 
difference of $1.03 per acre in the cost of putting on manure between 
these two districts. The advantage for Greeley was undoubtedly 
due to the use of larger crews. 
CROWNING ALFALFA. 
It has been pointed out that the sugar beet is not grown very 
generally after alfalfa. When this plan is followed two plo wings are 
frequently necessary. The first operation is commonly known as 
" crowning alfalfa." This study contains 53 records which deal with 
crowning. On these farms only part of the beet crop followed 
alfalfa. " Crowning" is shallow plowing. In two districts this 
operation is known as "scalping the land." The average depth 
which was reported on these farms was about 3 inches. It will be 
seen that the plow was run deep enough to cut the alfalfa crowns 
from the long tap root. The beet growers in the Fort Morgan and 
Greeley districts, where the largest amount of this work was done, 
used a two-way plow almost exclusively. The two-way plow consists 
of two plows, only one plow being available for use at a time. It is 
possible with this type to ehminate back furrows and dead furrows, 
