CONSERVATION PRACTICES FOR TOBACCO LANDS 35 



cultivator is used if the ground surface becomes crusted or grassy. 

 Either a one-horse or a two-horse cultivator may be used. Hand-hoe 

 weeding where necessary consists of scraping off the narrow strip of 

 crusted soil along the top of the ridge and about the plants. Some- 

 what less hand work is usually required to weed ridge rows than flat 

 rows. 



With tractor equipment the fertilizer is broadcast and lightly disked 

 or harrowed. The rows are then laid out and ridged in one operation 

 with a two- or three-row middle-buster. The crop is planted with a 

 two-row planter (fig. 22, A). Cultivation is with a two-row culti- 

 vator with ridging equipment (fig. 22, B). 



Low-saddle tobacco hoes, similar to those used in Pennsylvania 

 tobacco, can be mounted behind the tractor or riding horse-drawn cul- 

 tivator and the cultivating and weeding accomplished in one operation. 

 One man drives the team or tractor and another operates the hoe 

 over each row, opening and closing the weeding cultivators around the 

 individual tobacco plants. Very little hand hoeing is necessary with 

 this type of cultivation and weeding (fig. 23) . 



The row channels must always be left clean to avoid impounding 

 water. This is very important with any type of ridge-row cultivation. 



TOBACCO LAND ROTATIONS 



From the standpoint of erosion control on tobacco lands, benefits 

 may be expected from rotations that include sod crops. The residual 

 effect of sod materially reduces erosion occurring with row crops that 

 follow the sod (2, 5). Increases in the yields of many types of row 

 crops following a sod in rotations have also been generally shown (18) . 



Good yields of high-quality tobacco have generally been obtained on 

 newly cleared land or on land which has been occupied for a time by 

 native weeds or sod (13, Id) . Tests at Marlboro. Md., (-i, 4) have also 

 shown that rotations including 2 years of red clover or weeds gave 

 better tobacco crop values than continuous tobacco culture with winter 

 covers. Rotations on tobacco land may also be required as a means of 

 controlling certain tobacco diseases (8). 



The following rotations are commonly practiced by farmers in the 

 flue-cured and Maryland tobacco belts : 



The Flue-Cured Area 



1. Tobacco, small grain, red top (Agrostis alba). This is used 

 either as a 2- or 3-year rotation. 



2. Tobacco, small grain, lespedeza 1 or 2 years, corn or other row 

 crop, followed by a nonlegume winter cover. This is used as a 3- 

 or 4-year rotation especially where diseases necessitate including 

 other crops. 



3. Tobacco followed by a legume winter cover, cotton or corn, fol- 

 lowed by a nonlegume winter cover, such as rye or other small grain 

 or ryegrass. In this rotation the legume precedes the cotton or corn 

 while the nonlegume precedes the tobacco. 



4. Tobacco each year followed by a winter cover such as rye or rye- 

 grass. 



