6 THE PRODUCTIOK OF HAIEY VETCH SEED. 



Where haiiy vetch is planted alone, it nearly always becomes more 

 or less lodged, and should be mowed, if possible, against the direction 

 in which most of it is lying. After cutting the first swath, it should 

 be rolled upon the uncut vetch before cutting the second swath. The 

 two swaths should then be rolled out clear from the uncut vetch. 

 Sometimes three swaths are combined in this way. The cut vetch 

 should not be handled more than is necessary in curing, and care 

 should be taken in shocking to cover the pods as much as possible. 

 Hay caps are very desirable for this purpose. In thrashing pure vetch 

 it is sometimes desirable to have sharpened teeth on the concaves, as 

 long vetch is inclined to wrap about the cylinder. 



If hairy vetch is pastured rather late, the subsequent growth will not 

 be tall, but often is heavily set with pods. The same result can be 

 obtained by cutting the vetch early and feeding it green or putting it into 

 a silo. Such a second crop is much more easily mowed tlian tall vetch, 

 and in some instances excellent seed crops have been thus secured. 



Some farmers obtain their own supply of seed by cutting hairy vetch 

 for hay rather late, i. e., after some of the pods have ripened. Much 

 of this seed will rattle to the bottom of the m^ow, especially if a Uttle 

 care is taken to shake each forkful as it is being used for feed. Such 

 late cutting reduces slightly the value of the hay, but the seed ob- 

 tained often justifies the practice. 



Hairy vetch ripens its pods over a period of two or three weeks. 

 The best crops are obtained when the first pods are fully ripe and tlie 

 upper pods well filled. The latter ripen in the shocks, and if carefully 

 handled comparatively few of the ripe pods shatter. It is best to cut 

 the crop early in the morning or on a cloudy day. In any event the 

 vetch, whether cut in bundles or otherwise, should be put into shocks 

 at once and left thus till thrashed. The most important rule is to 

 handle the cut crop rapidly and as little as possible. 



An incidental advantage to the use of locally grown hairy vetch 

 seed is its much better germinating quahty. Old seed has a large 

 percentage of hard seeds, which lie in the ground a long time without 

 sprouting and which are practically valueless to the farmer. Fresh 

 samples collected in Europe in 1911 gave a uniformly high germination, 

 only one testing below 91 .5 per cent. Imported seed, which is usually 

 1 year old, frequently shows a hard-seed content of 10 to 40 per cent. 



EXPERIMENTS IN GROWING HAIRY VETCH SEED IN AMERICA. 



"While hairy vetch for hay or green manure has long been grown 

 successfully in nearl}^ all parts of the United States and Canada, 

 there has been relatively little iiivestigation niade of its seed produc- 

 tion. Table II is a compilation of published American data in 

 seed production, together with unpublished results obtained by the 

 Department and its cooperators. 



[Cir. 102] 



