Affect of Fe til;:,ti;,, and Irrigation on Tobacco


ments show that over-pasturage of sods and the gradual buildup
of nematodes are becoming serious problems in the burley to-
bacco area of Kentucky. A continuous rotation in which to-
bacco is followed by a cover crop of small grains was found to
be very helpful in maintaining organic matter, and also aided
in reducing nematode damage.
 Kincaid and Reeves (19) reported that after 15 years of
 continuous tobacco culture a practice of clean fallow followed
 by a planting of oats in the fall gave the most consistent re-
 sults for shade tobacco.
 Gaines (14) reported that crop rotations are the most prac-
 tical way of controlling nematodes. He concluded for best to-
 bacco production the rotated crop should leave a low level
 of fertility in the soil. Such crops as corn, peanuts, oats, cotton
 and weeds were found satisfactory in rotations with tobacco.

 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 This experiment was conducted on the Agricultural Experi-
ment Station farm at Gainesville, Florida. The soil type was
Lakeland fine sand having a pH value of 5.6 to 5.8. The
experimental area had been used previously in a rotation study
which included lupines or fallow for cover crops, followed by
corn or peanuts as cultivated crops. Tobacco followed corn or
peanuts in the rotation. Advantage was taken of this previous
cropping practice to obtain information on the possible effect
of crop rotation on the yield and quality of irrigated and non-
irrigated tobacco. Throughout this bulletin the effects of lupine
or fallow for cover crops will be referred to as "cultivation"
effects and the effects of corn or peanuts in the crop rotation will
be referred to as "variety" effects. See Fig. 3 for field diagram
of one replication.
 This experiment was designed to determine the effect of
(a) two rates of fertilizer, (b) two methods of fertilizer appli-
cation, (c) three irrigation treatments and (d) four cropping
practices on yield and quality of tobacco. The experimental de-
sign was a split-split-plot, replicated three times. The main-
plot divisions were based on rates of irrigation. The sub-plot
divisions were based on cropping systems arranged in an across-
the-block design. The sub-sub-plot divisions were based on
rates and methods of fertilizer application. There were five
rows per plot, with the center three rows being harvested for
yield. The harvested area of each plot was 1/306 acre in size.