16 
BULLETIN 693, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
MANTRIAL PRACTICE. 
Farm manure is regarded as an important by-product of the farm 
in the beet districts of Utah and Idaho. Of the men who were 
interviewed, 93.6 per cent had applied manure to the land the pre- 
ceding season and gave estimates of the value of the manure in the 
yards as well as of the total time required to haul this by-product 
to the field. (See Table VI.) It is the general practice to utilize 
practically all of the manure available on the f arm, and occasionally 
the operator supplements the home supply by hauling from a near-by 
feed yard or livery barn. Our records show that from one-third to 
one-half of the beet land was treated with an annual application of 
farm manure. Without exception the sugar beet gave evidence of 
direct benefit from the application of manure. In most cases the 
manure was hauled from the yard to the field in wagons and scat- 
tered by hand. In the Provo group the manure spreader was used 
by 41 per cent of the operators. The hauling was done almost 
entirely during the winter and early spring months. There is no 
other work to engage the attention of the farmer at this season of the 
year, which may explain the common practice of hauling with a 
wagon. He has plenty of time in which to complete the task, and 
an investment in a manure spreader has seemed to be unnecessary. 
To the same reason may be attributed the relatively small crew 
assigned to this task. On a majority of the farms this operation 
was done by one man with two horses and a wagon. \Vhere the 
spreader takes the place of the wagon three horses are usually 
employed., and frequently an extra man assists with the loading. 
Farm manure was sometimes applied to the potato land. Sugar 
beets were then grown the following year. The claim is made that 
manure often contains a large number of weed seeds, which germi- 
nate and interfere to a considerable extent with beet culture. If 
manure is scattered on potato land, the noxious weeds appear 
largely the first season and can be eradicated much more readilv. 
Table VI . — Man urial praci ice. 
Num- 
Acres 
ma- 
nured 
per 
farm. 
Tons 
applied 
per 
acre. 
Average crew. 
Hours per acre. 
Labor 
District 
iear - ' farm 
records . 
Man. 
Horse. 
Man. Horse. 
per 
acre. 
Garland 
1914-15 
1914-15 
1915 
74 
54 
34 
20. 2 1. 4 
7.9 17.2 1.4 
10. 15. 5 1 1. 6 
2.4> 
2.59 
2.4S 
21.5 
21.5 
19.2 
39.7 
34.5 
17. 87 
Provo 
7.96 
Idaho Falls 
7.29 
The Garland farmers applied manure to approximately one-third 
of the beet land, the Provo operators slightly more than one-third, 
and the Idaho Falls growers slightly less than one-half. The appli- 
cation of manure varied from 15.5 tons per acre in the Idaho Falls 
