44 
Under Colorado conditions at the present time, it costs just about 
as much to grow a ton of beets as a ton of alfalfa, and if there was an 
assured market for an unlimited quantity of each at ^4 per ton, there 
would still be more alfalfa grown than sugar beets. The same result 
is obtained if purchase price is considered. In Colorado, a man can 
buy all the alfalfa he wants for four dollars per ton, or even three 
dollars and a half, but he could not buy sugar beets for less, nor could 
he hire them raised at any less figure than he could secure alfalfa 
under the same conditions. It costs about two dollars per ton 
to raise each of them, and the difference between that and the selling 
price is no more than a fair profit for the grower. 
In all the figuring on the beets of these tests, it is necessary to 
bear in mind that these were below the average in quality. A hard 
rain came the first week in September, when the beets needed dry 
weather to ripen them, and kept the ground wet and the beets grow¬ 
ing until harvest time. This made watery beets with a very low per¬ 
centage of sugar. 
On the average of the season, it took between four and one-half 
and five pounds of beets to contain as much digestible feeding material 
as one pound of the wheat or corn. It is one of the most interesting 
features of the test to note how the judgment of the sheep as to their 
feeding value compared with this estimate based on the chemical 
analysis. 
Two comparisons can be made: previous to February 7, when 
moderate feeds of both grain and beets were given, and after that date 
when the sheep were crowded to their full capacity. A third compari¬ 
son can also be made by taking \^the figures for the whole time. 
Up to February 7, all the pens had been getting all the hay they 
would eat, and pen FTo. 4, 1-2 pound wheat and 4 pounds of beets; 
pen No. 2, 1-2 pound of wheat, pen No. 3, 1-2 pound of corn, and 
pen No. 4, 5 pounds of beets. Pen No. 1 gained 356 pounds, pen 
No. 2, 298, pen No. 3, 280, and pen No. 4, 331. Thus the pen with 
the heaviest feed, i. e., pen No. 1, gained the most, beets alone next^ 
wheat next, and corn last. The average of the wheat and corn is 289 
pounds gain. Therefore the addition of the four pounds of beets in 
pen No. 1 to the 1-2 pound of grain had made an extra gain of 67 
pounds over the grain alone, or of 58 pounds over the wheat alone. 
But pen No. 1 also ate some hay less than pens Nos. 2 and 3 that had 
grain alone. Thus there are 477 pounds of hay less and 3,970 pounds 
of beets more to be offset by 67 pounds of gain in live weight. Count¬ 
ing the gain in live weight worth seven cents per pound, and hay at 
J4 per ton, leaves $2.60 per ton for the beets. 
The beets alone in pen No. 4, gave 42 pounds more growth than 
the average of the grain pens with 378 pounds less of hay. That is, 
4,852 pounds beets gave 42 pounds more growth than 508 pounds of 
