'^ 



It was first introduced into cultivation by a German peasant about 

 40 years ago. This farmer noticed that the vetch grew on the dry 

 calcareous soils of hillsides, in places too poor to support even white 

 clover. He gathered a few seeds, sowed them the next year, and 

 kept on saving and sowing the seed 

 until he had enough to plant quite a 

 large field. From this small begin- 

 ning the cultivation of the kidney 

 vetch has spread throughout northern 

 Germany and many foreign coun- 

 tries, and to the United States. 



CULTIVATION. 



In Germany the custom is to sow 

 the seed in autumn at the rate of 18 

 to 22 pounds per acre, with oats, bar- 

 ley, or other small grain as a nurse 

 crop. Sometimes it is sown alone in 

 the spring. The product of the first 

 year is very small, so that it is only 

 a profitable crop when it is sown with 

 grain, in order that some income may 

 be derived from the land during that 

 time. The second year the vetch 

 throws up large stems that often 

 make a growth 3 or 4 feet high. 



The yield of hay is quite small, gen- 

 erally not more than one cutting per 

 season, and perhaps a ton or a ton 

 and a half of hay per cutting. It is 

 cut in full bloom, and cured in about 

 the same way as red clover. Two 

 crops may l)e secured in one season 

 by cutting the first before the plant 

 blossoms, but usually the aftermath, 

 consisting entirely of root leaves, is 

 depastured and no attempt is made 

 to get more than one crop of hay. 



Kidney vetch is not recommended 

 for sowing in the United States, ex- 

 cept on poor, thin, calcareous or very 

 sandy soils, which are too sterile to 

 support the red or crimson clovers, or any of the better forage crops. 

 It has been tried at a number of tlie experiment stations throughout 

 the United States, but has been reported as of small value. 



Jared G. Smith, 



Fig. 4. 



-Kidney vetch {Anthyllis vuUier- 

 aria): a, flower. 



Assistant Agrostologist. 



Approved : 



James Wilson, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



Washington, D. C, April 5, 1898. 



