Irrigation and Drainage 



143 



order to induce the beets to go deeply into the soil. In 

 order to increase length, some farmers even allow their 

 beets positively to be injured by drought before applying 

 water. The results reported here, which represent many 

 thousands of careful measurements during five years, 

 show that this idea is wrong. In the ordinary good beet 

 soil that is well-drained, an irrigation does not decrease 

 the depth of penetration of beets; it rather assists them 

 to go deeper. Of course this does not contradict the well- 

 known fact that beets are likely to be shorter on a soil 

 that is water-logged, such as that in which a total of 96 

 inches of water was applied. In view of these experiments, 

 it seems folly to let beets suffer for water and be injured 

 permanently in order to make them root deeply. 



The percentage of forked beets is shown, by Figs. 20 

 and 21, to bear no consistent relationship to the amount 



I Pfrctar ftrKtd See to 

 Qttrtjc. A eight Top* 



FIG. 21. Effect of irrigation at different stages on percentage of forked 

 beets and height of tops. Utah. 



