FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA 
29 
Figure 8 shows the man-labor distribution by days on 45 acres of 
oats. All of the labor on the crop is confined to 13 days of seed-bed 
preparation and seeding in April, 6 days of cutting and shocking in 
Distribution of Man Labor on 45 Acres of Oats 
OF 
LABOR 
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. 
Fig. 8.— Small -grain crops require large amounts of labor during comparatively short periods 
July, and 2 days of shock threshing early in August, 
representative labor distribution for the crop. 
This is a 
BARLEY 
Half of the land for barley on these farms is plowed. This plowing 
is done in the spring. In fact, the barley is often grown on spring 
plowing, when the plowing is completed too late for oats. The land 
not plowed is disked, usually at least twice. All barley land is har- 
rowed at least once before seeding and usually once after, The 
plowed land is harrowed twice before seeding. On all farms included 
in this study barley was sown with a drill. It was either shock or 
stack threshed, according to the practice prevailing on the particular 
farm. This practice has already been discussed for the oat crop. 
LABOR REQUIREMENTS FOR BARLEY PRODUCTION 
The labor requirements for barley production are presented in 
Tables 18 and 19. The total hours as given in the yearly averages 
are computed on the basis of shock threshing. The number of farms 
growing barley in 1921 was too small to bring out many of the causes 
For variations in labor requirements by operations. In general, the 
same factors which caused variations m labor requirements for oats 
obtain in case of the barley crop. 
