The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1917-03-16
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES


From Bulletin of wisconsin Agricultural Elk
pertinent Station
THE MANAGEMENT OF TOBACCO SOILS.
The culture of tobacco has been car
ried on in Wisconsin, on fairly extern
sive scale, for over fifty years. Dur
ing this time the acreage has gradually
increased until recent years, when it
has remained quite stationary, at ap-
proximately forty thousand acres. This
acreage is distributed over about eight
thousand farms where usually it is the
only leash crop" grown. Tobacco cul-
ture has become an important part OF
the financial assets of these farms on
account of the necessary investments
in equipment for its culture, and the
increased value of the farm land re-
sulting from it's adaptability to the
growing of the crop
Practically all the tobacco in Wiscon-
sin is grown in connection with dairy
farming, and the growers therefore do
not as g rule rely upon the tobacco
crop for their entire income, and in ad-
dition they have had the benefit of the
animal manures produced for use on
the tobacco land, with the result that
little money has been invested in COM
mercial fertilizers, when compared to
certain other tobacco growing sections
in the United States. There is, how
ever, considerable percentage of the
acreage grown on shares and num-
Der of small farms are relying almost
entirely on the tobacco crop for the
yearly income, and to these the prob
lem of the management of tobacco
soils has been and will be increasingly
acute.
In Wisconsin the average yield and
quality of tobacco, as produced in late
years, has apparently decreased in
spite of the increased knowledge and
experience of the growers. Although
the average crop produced may be
rated frequently as normal, the fact
remains that too large a proportion of
poor crops, either as regards yield or
quality, or both, are to be found. The
seasons of 1913 aud 1915 may be cited
as years in which this condition was
more or less general and the good crops
the exception rather than the rule.
This condition is popularity attributed,
wholly or in part, to either unfavorable
weather conditions or deterioration in
soil fertility. The more correct ex-
PLANTATION is that owing to the unwise
selection and improper management of
the soils used for tobacco culture, the
weather conditions have not been fav
orable for the production of a normal
crop on these soils. There are, of
course, numerous instances where fail
1res are due to unforeseen conditions.
Il / The problem of the tobacco" grower,
however, is to manage his soils in such
way that the variations in weather
conditions, which ordinarily occur in
tobacco growing regions, will have the
least injurious effect on the crop. Ex-
cept for injury from hail or storm, a
normal crop should then be produced
with only rare exceptions, and the pos
sibilities of excellent yields and guam
tity would be materially increased.
The factors of soil management, in
it's broadest sense, believed to be most
essential in tobacco culture, are: Q)
selection of soil with view to it's
adaptability to the tobacco plant; (2)
obtaining and maintaining the best me-
chanical condition or tilth in the soil;
.(3) applying the necessary fertilizers
for normal plant growth, with due con-
sideration as to the effect of such fer
tilizers on quality; (4) cultivation with
special reference to the preservation OF
soil moisture, to guard against dry per-
iods of weather; (5) the use of judg-
ment and care in avoiding root rot dis
ease of the tobacco plant.
These five factors are all of about
equal Importance, in that failure in any
of them may wholly, or in part, destroy
crop prospects. IL, however, emphasis
should be placed on any one of these
| factors, it should be upon the last, the
avoidance of the root rot disease of the
| tobacco plant. This is the controlling
| factor about which the average grower
| knows least, and is most likely to fail
to recognize. This disease has conse-
quently caused more actual money loss
| in recent years to tobacco growers than
all other factors combined.
| Because better crops of tobacco are
grown on virgin soils than on older to-
bacco fields, which have been literally
| fertilized, the growers have come to
| the conclusion that the tobacco plant
depletes the fertility of the soil much
! more rapidly than any other agrlcul-
| tural crop. This is not actually the
case Repeated heavy applications OF
| barnyard manures on fields IN contlnu-
Gus culture to tobacco seemed insuffl-
cient to bring back the virgin state OF
fertility in the majority OF instances,
especially if unfavorable weather con-
! ditions prevailed. Interest was there
fore aroused in commercial fertilizers,
as it was hoped that these might sup
ply the missing soil constituents. The
old "worn out" tobacco soils, however,
were still unable to grow normal crops
of certain kinds of tobacco.
A number of the growers then con-
cluded the ''seed" or variety had run
out" or deteriorated. Frequent changes
of seed were made, resulting often in
still greater confusion and dissatisfac-
tion among growers and manufacturers
alike. Occasionally, however, type
of tobacco was obtained which grew
very we'll on these old "worn out"
soils, but the quality of leaf produced
was frequently such that when placed
upon the market the packers were
skeptical about its value.
However, in seasons producing much
small tobacco a large-sized leaf of poor
quality was at times preferred to a