A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of fertilizer application rate and number of harvested leaves per plant on selected agronomic, chemical and physical characteristics of burley tobacco(Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Burley 21) in 1988, 1989 and 1990 at Chonju Experiment Station, Korea Ginseng SE Tobacco Research Institute. 175.0 or 227.5 kilogram per 10a of compound fertilizer(N-P2O5-K2O= 10-10-20) were applied as main plot, and 2 or 4 of upper leaves was topped off with 0, 2 or 4 of the lower leaves removed as sub plot. Yield, total alkaloid and total nitrogen content of cured leaves were high in the higher level of compound fertilizer plot, and increasing the level of compound fertilizer had an adverse effect on physical characteristics. Reducing the number of harvested leaves had a negative effect on yield regardless of whether the leaf number was reduced by lower topping or removing the bottom leaves, but increased the rate of higher grades leaves. Differences in total alkaloid, total nitrogen and some physical properties among number of harvested leaf per plant were smaller than expected.