T5fi Gkasses and Leguminous Crops in New York 



September 10. The seed crop is harvested the following July. 

 When growing vetch with rye, the rye is inclined to predominate 

 if more than one bushel of seed per acre is used in the mixture. 

 The plan to keep in mind in working out this practice is to get 

 a good stand of seed vetch with a minimum amount of rye or wheat. 

 The only function the grain sei*ves is to hold the vetch off the 

 ground. The crop is harvested in the usual manner, thrashed, 

 and the seed separated with considerable ease by using a spiral 

 gravity vetch separator. 



HAIRY VETCH AS A SOIL IMPROVER 



Hairy vetch has been more generally used as a soil-improving 

 crop or a cover crop than for forage. As a cover crop in orchards 

 it protects the soil from washing during the fall and winter. The 

 following spring it is plowed under or incorporated with the soil 

 with special machinery, thereby greatly enriching the land. 



When vetch is used alone as a cover crop, nearly one bushel of 

 seed per acre is required. In combination with rye, 30 pounds of 

 winter vetch and 30 pounds of rye per acre is recommended. At 

 prevailing prices either of these mixtures are expensive. Another 

 mixture including vetch is: vetch, 20 pounds; clover, 8 pounds; 

 turnips, 8 ounces. The time of seeding cover crops, including 

 vetch, ranges from August 10 to 25. 



Farmers growing tobacco in the state have found that vetch and 

 rye in equal parts is to be recommended as a cover crop following 

 the tobacco harvest. The Government Station at Baldwinsville, 

 Onondaga County, suggests 50 pounds of vetch and an equal 

 amount of rye per acre. This is seeded between September 15 

 and October 1, after the tobacco crop has been harvested. This 

 cover crop is plowed under the following year. The practice is 

 reported to be satisfactory, although it would seem that the expense 

 for this amount of vetch seed might justify a smaller seeding of 

 vetch per acre. 



Hairy vetch may also be used successfully as a cover crop in 

 vineyards and in fields growing com that are to be plowed in the 

 spring. Where fall plowing is practiced, the vetch would not make 

 suificient growth to justify the extra cost of the seed. 



