UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION NO. 656 



Washington, D. C. 



November 1948 



Conservation Practices for Tobacco Lands 

 of the Flue-Cured and Maryland Belts 



By T. L. Copley, Project Supervisor, Soil Conservation Service, Raleigh, N. C; 

 Clarence S. Britt, Project Supervisor, Soil Conservation Service, Beltsville, 

 Md.; and W. B. Posey, Tobacco Specialist, University of Maryland, College 

 Park, Md. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 1 



Erosion hazards on tobacco land 3 



Soils 5 



Land slope 6 



Rainfall pattern 6 



Early studies of erosion control on tobacco 



lands 6 



Faulty row systems 8 



Research on corrective measures 8 



Row grades on bright-tobacco soils 10 



Row grades on Maryland tobacco soils. -_ 12 



The effect of row grade on crop yield 13 



Row-grade-slope relat ionships 19 



Improved row system 22 



The stringmethod 23 



Adapting the string method to different 



terrace patterns 24 



Page 



Terraces on tobacco fields 29 



Terrace outlets 30 



Secondary waterways in tobacco fields___ 31 

 Cultural practices under the improved row 



system on tobacco land 31 



Tobacco land rotations 35 



The flue-cured area 35 



The Maryland area 36 



Winter cover crops and erosion losses 36 



Seeding winter cover over ridged rows 40 



The use of mulch 42 



Conclusion 43 



Literature citations 43 



^JS ** * * * ****^ 



INTRODUCTION 



Since the culture of tobacco was begun in Virginia and Maryland 

 in the early 1600's this crop has been a principal source of revenue. 

 It has long been a cornerstone in the economy of the southeastern and 

 Maryland tobacco belts. Today, it sustains much of the agriculture, 

 manufacture, and trade of this region. 



The crop, however, along with other row crops grown in the area, 

 has proved costly to the soil resources of the tobacco belts, and from 

 this standpoint a critical stage has long since been reached. Much of 

 our tobacco land has been exhausted and many of the once productive 

 fields and larger land areas have become so eroded that they are no 

 longer suitable for tobacco production (fig. 1). This is particularly 

 true in the older and more rolling tobacco-growing counties of the 

 flue-cured belt. The lower Piedmont, or middle belt, though not in 

 quite as bad shape, is also suffering from serious erosion and has lost 

 much of its topsoil. And even in the coastal plain area of the Mary- 

 land and flue-cured belts, galled spots and many eroded areas are 

 evident. 



1 



