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 
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Woter applied i Qverage helght of Tops . 
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Fig. 21. — Effect of irrigation at different stages on percentage of forked 
beets and height of tops. Utah. 
