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MISC. PUBLICATION 6 5 6, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Tobacco over most of the bright belt is planted between May 1 and 

 20, and by the end of the first month the first three or four cultivations 

 usually have developed sufficient ridge for each row to carry its own 

 water. The hard summer rains, which constitute the greatest erosion 

 hazard usually come after these ridges have been developed. This 

 protection is provided at the time it is most needed. Occasionally 

 heavy rains come while the crop rows are too low to be effective, in 

 which case they may do serious damage. To guard against this it is 

 advisable to leave a well-defined furrow after each cultivation. 



In the Maryland belt current practices included neither the ridge 

 row culture nor controlled row grades. The problem here was to pro- 

 vide both drainage and protection from erosion. Eesults cited previ- 

 ously in this buletin show that ridge rows with moderate grades bene- 

 fit both crop and land as compared with customary farm practices in 

 this tobacco belt. The tobacco planting dates in this belt come during 

 the period of high erosion hazard. Thus, it is important to prepare 

 high ridges before the crop is planted. In the Maryland belt both 

 horse-drawn and tractor equipment have been tested in the ridge-row 

 culture of tobacco. Land preparation has included plowing, disking, 

 and harrowing in the same way as for flat cultivation. 



With horse-drawn equipment, rows are laid out with a fertilizer dis- 

 tributor provided with a set of small disk hillers to cover the fertilizer 

 and produce a small row ridge. A one-horse middle-buster is then run 

 once or twice between each pair of rows. This leaves channels about 

 10 inches deep. The crop is then planted by hand or with a single- 

 row planter. The crop is cultivated either by the middle-buster alone 

 or with an ordinary cultivator followed by the middle-buster. The 



Figure 23. — Operating a low-saddle tobacco hoe mounted behind a one-row horse- 

 drawn cultivator. Note that the grass and weeds have been controlled around 

 the individual tobacco plants by opening and closing the weeding cultivators. 



