At Heart Mountain, internees cultivated farmland north of the living area and across the highway to the south and southwest as far as Corbett Bridge over the Shoshone River. More than 1,750 acres of federal land near the center was available for farming if the Shoshone Canal could be completed to bring water from the Shoshone Dam hydroelectric project. The canal, begun by the Civilian Conservation Corps, was completed by the internees in time for planting in the spring of 1943. With a food budget of 45 cents per day per person but actual costs of 32 cents, and with the need for an adequate food supply and fresh vegetables, internees grew many of their own crops. The Heart Mountain region averaged 109 growing days per year, with harvest required before early frost in September, and farmers from Washington's Yakima Valley helped teach methods for raising crops in a short growing season, including the use of hot caps and hot beds. Crops raised in quantity included wheat, barley, celery, corn, peas, radishes, daikon, nappa, potato, gobo, and melons. Root cellars built by the internees were used to store vegetables, and some produce was canned by contract with Big Horn Canning in Cowley, Wyoming. In addition to crops, more than 1,000 hogs and 15,000 chickens were raised, and more than a million eggs were produced for consumption at Heart Mountain and other War Relocation Authority camps because outside sales were not permitted. James Ito and Eiichi Sakauye, experienced large-scale farmers from California, served as Internee Assistant Farm Superintendents responsible for these crops. In 1942 and 1943, many internees also volunteered to work on farms in labor-short Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to help save the sugar beet harvest. Their work transformed this section of Wyoming's Big Horn Basin into productive farmland.