1907.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 105 



Tobacco Troubles. 



Some troubles, due to mctliods of handling the crop, occa- 

 sionally occur on tobacco growing in the Connecticut valley. 

 Instances have been known for years where the crops have 

 been set back by tlie nse of certain fertilizers and methods of 

 applying them. Tobacco, corn and other crops, moreover, 

 show a tendency to stand still or make little growth on soil 

 in which there is an overabundance of moisture. 



Our attention has been called to a tobacco trouble which 

 appears to be caused by the use of fertilizer. In one partic- 

 ular field which w^e examined the roots of the plants had all 

 the characteristic symptoms of fertilizer burning, and careful 

 examination failed to reveal any fungi associated with this 

 trouble. The tap roots of all the plants wdiich we examined 

 had been destroyed, and new secondary roots had developed 

 freely on the injured end of the tap root. These were en- 

 deavoring to penetrate to the lower strata of the soil, and 

 would in turn become burned on the tip before reaching any 

 great distance. 



The effect on the crop manifested itself in a stunted growth, 

 the plants remaining in this condition for weeks. When 

 plants affected, with this trouble were removed to other soils 

 they would in all cases make rapid growth. Even in the field 

 where the trouble occurred they would reach a fair degree 

 of maturity at the time of harvesting. There appears to be 

 absolutely no connection between this trouble and the seed 

 bed, since other fields close by were planted from this seed 

 bed, and not the slightest evidence of the trouble was to be 

 seen. Moreover, it occurs on new tobacco land as well as on 

 old. It was as severe on land which had been j^lanted this 

 year for the first time as it was on old land. 



The trouble apparently seems to have no inclination to 

 spread, since a field only ten or twelve feet away from the 

 infected one, planted wdth seedlings from the same seed bed, 

 showed no trace of it. It is much more conspicuous in low 

 places which receive drainage from the surrounding soil than 

 on the drier knolls. 



At present, at any rate, the trouble must be attributed to 



