68 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
of it and without knowing the actual difference in level I would 
estimate it as not greater than two feet. 'The held immediately north 
of this property was in beets, which were very poor indeed. This 
fact is mentioned to indicate that the people still considered it as 
tillable ground. The question of seepage is of course suggested by 
its position, but I dug shallow holes three to three and a half feet 
deep on different occasions without striking water. I was sur¬ 
prised that the water plane was so deep as three feet, but it was 
evidently deeper. I expect to give in a subsequent bulletin the best 
possible proof that beets will grow well and yield beets of fine 
quality with the water plane much nearer the surface than this, and 
I have seen a fine growth of sorghum on land in which the 
drainage ditches were not as deep as this. While I willingly admit 
that in my judgment the people did unwisely to choose these pieces 
of land for cultivation, they probably did not believe that the land 
was seeped at the time of planting or was likely to become so dur¬ 
ing the season, and as I have already indicated, I found no reason 
for thinking that the water plane was at any time less than three 
feet below the surface. I dug one of the holes referred to in June, 
the other in September, 1910. The general conditions that prevail 
are as I have just described them, but these alone would scarcely 
have induced me to have made mention of this land, though it is 
one worthy of study in this connection. 
Circumstances enable me to give a few facts pertaining to the 
effects of flooding. I stated in connection with Case No. 8 that 
the owner had irrigated excessively till, in his own language, he 
had “washed the ground white” in expectation that by so doing 
he would correct the evil. We had, however, no results except the 
continued bad condition of the land to indicate the-effects. Further, 
I showed that the drainage of his land was ideal. Again in con¬ 
nection with Orchard No. 3, described in Bulletin 155, I stated 
that the owner of that orchard had treated some of his land in the 
most drastic manner in an endeavor to correct this difficulty by 
washing. This party had run a furrow with a turning plow, fol¬ 
lowed with a subsoil plow and turned into the furrow one hundred 
inches of water but without any satisfactory degree of success; this 
statement is very conservative. The last time that I saw this man’s 
orchard it and some of his other land was in a very bad condition. 
This flooding had leveled the land but it had not removed, if it had 
indeed alleviated the trouble for any considerable time. 
I can, fortunately, present the effects of flooding in removing 
the salts and benefiting the soil in this case. I chanced to be in 
this section of the state on the 12th of August, 1910, when, due 
to torrential rains, the piece of affected land was flooded for about 
five hours. The flood waters which swept acress it were several 
inches deep. I learned that about a week subsequent to this another 
