THE CULTURE 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 herd’s-grass, would be practicable in some cases. 
Tf 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. Ifthe pea vines were turned under, this system ought 
to keep the soil well supphed 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 
