DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 13

 FIELD PRODUCTION

 There are twenty-nine counties in which flue-cured tobacco
is grown in Florida at the present time, and there are some
6,633 growers producing approximately 15,110 acres. Table
3 and 3A shows counties and the harvested acreage for these
counties in 1956 and 1957. It should be noted that the bulk
of the acreage occurs within the Suwannee Valley area. The
soils of that area are quite suitable for tobacco production.
However, soil management is an important factor in crop
production, and tobacco is a crop that is affected by cropping
and management practices.

 ROTATIONS

 There has been a wealth of virgin land in the flue-cured
tobacco area of Florida, and growers have used newly cleared
land for a major part of their production. Today, with very
little good tobacco land left to be cleared and with the trend
toward more intensive farming through the use of the tractor,
there is greater need for a cropping system. Land is so valu-
able today that the farmer can't afford to follow the old
cropping system of much idle land. (Sometimes called cracker
farming.)


Fig. 4: Pulling Plants for Transplanting