BULLETIN 917, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The Greeley district is close to the mountains, and the mean annual 
temperature there is 47° F., as compared with 51° for Fort Morgan. 
The range between extremes is wide. The nights are cool and the 
days, as a rule, are warm. The summer temperatures of the Rocky 
Ford district are somewhat higher than those of the Fort Morgan 
and Greeley districts. Throughout the entire territory cloudy days 
are the exception. 
High winds, which are a characteristic feature, usually blow with 
great persistence in the spring, when the fields are without vegeta- 
tion. Thus, it is a common occurrence for loose soil to be picked up 
and carried along with each strong current of ah. If one of these 
heawy winds occurs when the plants are small and the soil is dry, 
much damage may be done to the crop. The seed is sometimes blown 
out or too deeply covered. Plants are left with their root systems 
exposed or covered by deposits of dust. At other times the sand 
carried by the wind cuts the tender plant leaves. Windstorms often 
damage a young crop to such an extent that it is necessary to reseed 
it. In some of the longer settled districts this difficulty has been 
reduced by the growth of windbreaks. These heavy winds accom- 
panied by a low atmospheric humidity often cause the formation of 
hard crusts on the soil and produce excessive evaporation, which tends 
to counteract all the beneficial effects of a rain. Cultivation as soon 
as possible after rainfall is essential for the best results. 
SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR. 
Before a cropping system can be intelligently established on the 
farm, it is necessary to study the distribution of labor by months 
for the various crops 
in the proposed plan. 
Certain crops must 
be planted at the 
same time, and 
therefore the land 
must be prepared 
at the same time; 
others must be cul- 
tivated simultane- 
ously; while others 
must be harvested 
during the same 
period. In fact, every operation on two or more crops may con- 
flict with others. It is necessary then to plant only as many acres 
of these crops as can be handled by the available labor. 
In the diagrams presented (figs. 3 to 8), no crop has been consid- 
ered for more than one district. Although there is a slight difference 
MAN HOURS 
MONTH 
HORSE HOURS 
8 4- C 
8 
llll . 
JAN. 
FEB. 
MAR. 
APR. 
MAY 
JUNE 
JULY 
AUG. 
SEPT. 
OCT. 
NOV. 
DEC. 
1 
ff 
1 
Fig. 3.- 
-Labor distribution by months in growing field beans in the 
Greelev district of Colorado. 
