GROWING FIELD CROPS IN SUGAR-BEET DISTRICTS. 
9 
MAN HOURS 
MONTH 
HORSE HOURS 
Contract Labor 
each crop on a given farm with a given amount of labor so as to 
make the most economical use of that labor. From another view- 
point, after the selection of a certain acreage for a definite crop as 
the one best suited to his soil, the market conditions, and other fac- 
tors that arise in its selection, the grower should be able to determine 
with a reasonable 
degree of accuracy 
the amount of labor 
he Avill need to hire 
for each month of 
the year and the 
number of work ani- 
mals that will bo 
necessary for the 
operation of the 
farm. It is shown 
p o 
JAN. 
FEB. 
MAR. 
APR. 
MAY 
JUNE 
JULY 
AUG. 
SEPT. 
OCT. 
NOV. 
DEC. 
that SUgar beets Fig. 8.— Labor distribution by months in growing cucumbers in the 
reouire a 1 a r o - e Rocky Ford district of Colorado. 
amount of contract labor distributed from April to November, with 
concentration for periods in May, June, September, and October. 
There are slack period s in which an interchange of labor may take 
place in connection with other crops on adjacent farms. In fact, 
this is customary in a region where competing crops are grown. 
To insure getting labor when needed one should keep the laborer 
employed on the same farm. 
It is also shown by the diagrams that extra man labor is needed 
for the grain crops at harvest time. These laborers may be used to 
do the contract work 
on sugar beets and be 
employed through- 
out the growing sea- 
son, whita if the beets 
were not grown and 
all the acreage was 
planted to grain and 
hay there would be a 
greater demand for 
men at grain and hay 
harvest time. With 
a limited number of 
helpers in the vicinity, these crops could not be handled so economi- 
cally as under present conditions, because extra labor is brought in 
to care for sugar beets primarily, and incidentally these men are 
employed to help with hay and grain. 
*11311°— 21— Bull. 917 2 
Fig. 9.— Seasonal distribution of labor required to produce 6.16 acres 
ofbeans, 20.82 acres of beets, 7.45 acres of cucumbers, 27.28 acresof 
alfalfa, 2.8 acres of oats, 7.85 acres of cantaloupes, and 2.05 acres of 
wheat in the Rocky Ford district of Colorado. 
