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COST OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS IN UTAH AND IDAHO. 83 
PLANTING. 
In the beet-growing districts of Utah it is customary for the 
factories to own and operate the beet drills. Ordinarily the planting 
is not done by the individual grower, but by some person employed 
by the sugar company to do this work on a number of farms within 
a given area. The men engaged for this purpose usually have small 
farms and are therefore in a position to do some outside work. 
There are several advantages in this arrangement. It is very 
evident that a man who operates a beet drill regularly can do a 
better grade of work than the man who plants a six or eight acre 
tract, which requires a fraction of a day, or at most not more than 
Fic, 8.— Putting in beet seed with a 4row drill. 
a full day, per year. Furthermore, the small farmer is not required 
to carry an investment in a piece of machinery which is used only 
for a few hours each year. 
A direct charge of 50 cents per acre is made to cover the cost of 
planting. Beet seed is sold to the farmers at the rate of 15 cents 
per pound, and approximately 15 pounds are planted per acre. The 
farm operator hauls the seed from the factory or warehouse to the 
farm. This work is done at a season of the year when farm work is 
not pressing, or it is made a secondary feature of some special trip 
to town. The item of hauling seed is cared for under “overhead 
expense.” In the Idaho district the farmers did their own planting. 
Beet seed is universally put in with a 4-row drill. It requires one 
