﻿THE CULTUEE OF FLUE-CURED TOBACCO. 9 



make it difficult to get a stand of tobacco because of the attacks of 

 the wireworms on the young plants as soon as they are set out. 

 This difficulty in turn could be successfully overcome by following 

 the corn with oats, making a six-year rotation, the field coming back 

 to tobacco again in the seventh year. Another variation would be to 

 follow the tobacco with corn and then with oats or wheat, to be 

 followed in turn by the two years of grass, making a five-year rota- 

 tion and putting the tobacco on the grass sod, as in the four-year 

 rotation first mentioned. 



In the New Belt there is a greater diversity of money crops. Cot- 

 ton, peanuts, and sweet potatoes may be mentioned, and among 

 these cotton would be the one most generally desired because of its 

 ready market and wide adaptability throughout the New Belt sec- 

 tion. Legumes are also much less objectionable on the light Coastal 

 Plain soils, and in many instances a legume could be introduced into 

 the rotation with benefit. In most cases cowpeas probably would be 

 found most satisfactory for this purpose, or, on the stiffer soils 

 where it will hold through the winter, crimson clover also might 

 often be used to advantage. When used, these legumes should gener- 

 ally come in the rotation closely succeeding tobacco, so that any 

 excess of ammonia which they might supply could be used up to 

 some extent by the crops intervening before the field comes to to- 

 bacco again.- On some of the very lightest unimproved soils, tobacco 

 might give good results even if directly following a turned-under 

 leguminous crop, such as cowpeas. 



On the stiffer soils of the New Belt, the four-year rotation sug- 

 gested for the Old Belt, namely, tobacco followed by winter oats and 

 then two years in hercl's-grass, would be practicable in some cases. 

 If it is desired to put cotton in the rotation, satisfactory results should 

 be obtained by seeding the field to cowpeas as soon as the oats are 

 removed. The peas should be fertilized liberally with phosphoric 

 acid and potash (say, 200 to 400 pounds of 16 per cent acid phosphate 

 and 100 pounds of sulphate of potash), and the peas could either be 

 mowed for hay or turned under, generally the latter when it is de- 

 sired to improve the soil, as the condition of the field or the need for 

 the hay makes most desirable. The cotton could follow the peas, after 

 which the field could be planted in tobacco again, making a three- 

 year rotation. If the pea vines were turned under, this system ought 

 to keep the soil well supplied with vegetable matter, and good crops 

 of both cotton and tobacco should result with the addition of but com- 

 paratively small amounts of nitrogen in the fertilizer. The oat crop 

 should be top-dressed early in the spring with about 200 pounds of 

 nitrate of soda per acre, in the manner recommended for grass. 



Peanuts or sweet potatoes could be introduced into the rotation 

 if desired, either in place of or succeeding the cotton. Peanuts are 

 6907°— Bull. 16—13 2 



