Hairy vetches may be planted in autumn, from about the middle of 

 August to the middle of September, or in spring, from the latter part of 

 April to the middle of May. Sow broadcast at the rate of a bushel and 

 a half of seed per acre, or plant in drills 2 to 4 feet apart. The latter 

 method will require a less amount of seed. The seed is as yet very 

 expensive in this country, about $6 per bushel of 60 pounds. When 

 the seed is put in broadcast, a bushel of rye, oats, or wheat, should be 

 sown at the same time, so as to furnish a support for the vetches, and 

 keep the vines up off the ground. If it is sown in drills in the latter 

 part of August, it should be cultivated several times between the rows. 

 It will furnish some forage in autumn, and where the winter is not too 

 severe, will start to grow again in the spring, thus producing forage in 

 late autumn and early sjDring, at the two periods when it is most 

 needed. 



Prof. S. M. Tracy in " Forage Plants for the South " (Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 18 of this Department) states that the seed of hairy vetch 

 was sown at the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station in October, 

 1888, and since that time has given heavy annual crops on the same 

 ground, although it has received no attention and the ground has not 

 been plowed since the first sowing. Its seeds germinate with the first 

 autumn rains and in favorable seasons cover the ground by the first of 

 January, and then furnish good grazing until April or May. If the 

 stock is taken off the field in March, the plants will mature and reseed 

 the ground freely for the next year. 



The great desideratum in our American farming is some crop or 

 crops, either clovers, grasses, or other forage plants, Avhich may be 

 sown after the grain crop of the year is harvested, to provide green 

 forage and pasturage and to prevent the washing of the soils in winter 

 and early spring. If the land is allowed to lie bare, large amounts of 

 the soluble, and hence the most valuable, mineral fertilizers are washed 

 into the creeks and rivers. The agricultural soils in the newly settled 

 portions of the continent have been cultivated as though their riches 

 were inexhaustible. Crop after crop of grain, cotton, corn, or tobacco 

 is taken from the field, and no effort is made to replace the potash, 

 phosphoric acid, and nitrogen which they contain. The result of this 

 robbing of the soil is that in 15 or 20 years the yield has very 

 materially diminished. The loss in fertility which these lands sustain 

 each year is about equally divided between that portion sold from the 

 farm in the form of grain or other raw material and that which leaches 

 out of the soil through washing after the crop has been removed from 

 the field and the surface is no longer protected from the elements- 

 Now, if some crop can be planted which will cover the ground in 

 autumn and winter and early spring, and which will be ready to take 

 off the ground in time for spring planting, at least half of this loss of 



