The effect of controlled traffic on cotton yield and soil condition on three West Tennessee soils

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effects of a controlled traffic pattern on the physical condition of soil and the cotton yield. Three types of seedbed preparation were used; conventional, bedded, and none. Three types of equipment--two-row, four-row, and six-row--were used; the traffic from this equipment was controlled such that the traffic remained on permanent wheel paths through the field. The controlled traffic pattern caused no severe adverse soil physical conditions. Also, yields from the bedded plots tended to exceed those from the conventional plots suggesting the possibility of reducing the number of pre-planting trips through the field.