Fertility Evaluation of Tobacco Field by Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Soils

토양의 정량적 및 정성적 특성을 이용한 연초 경작지의 비옥도 평가

Evaluation method of soil fertility by combination of soil color characteristics and survey data from soil map as well as chemical properties was investigated on total 35 field and pot experiments. Total 35 tobacco fields including 11 fields located at Cheonweon county in Chungnam Province, 9 fields located at Goesan county in Chungbuk Province, and 15 fields located at Youngcheon county in Kyongbuk Province were selected in 1984 to cover the wide range of distribution in landscape and soil attributes. Yields of tobacco grown on the plots of both the pot and field experiment which were not applied with any fertilizer were considered as basic fertility of the soil (BFS). The BFS was estimated by 32 independent variables including 15 chemical properties, 3 color characteristics, and 14 soil survey data from soil map. Twenty-four independent variables containing 16 quantitative variables selected from 24 quantitative variables by collinearity diagnostics and 8 qualitative variables, were classified and analyzed by multiple linear regression (MLR) of REG and GLM models of SAS. Tobacco yield of field experiment showed high variations by eight times in difference between minimum and maximum yield indicating the diverse soil fertility among the experimental fields. Evaluation for the BFS by the MLR including quantitative variables was still more confidential than that by a single index and that showed more improvement of coefficient of determination ($R^2$) in pot experiment than in field experiment. Evaluation for the BFS by MLR in field experiment was still improved by adding qualitative variables as well as quantitative variables. The variability in the BFS of field experiment was explained 43.2% by quantitative variables and 67.95% by adding both the quantitative and qualitative variables compared with 21.7% by simple regression with NO$_3$-N content in soil. The regression evaluation for the best evaluation of the BFS of field experiment by MLR included NO$_3$-N content, L value, and a value of soil color as quantitative variables and available soil depth and topography as qualitative variables. Consequently, it is assumed that this approach by the MLR including both the quantitative and qualitative variables was available as an evaluation model of soil fertility for tobacco field.