EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 267 



This vetch is usually considered a winter crop, but it may be sown in 

 either fall or spring. In this locality self-sown seeds usually germinate 

 in the fall, and the young plants live over and produce a crop the follow- 

 ing season. A plot sown to hairy vetch will thus maintain itself year 

 after year. It is recommended abroad to sow the seed with oats, as is 

 done in this country with field peas, and harvest both crops together for 

 feed. In the spring of 1S9G this Station sowed half an acre of mixed 

 oats and vetch according to this plan. The vetches, however, made prac- 

 tically no growth until after the oats were harvested, although the young 

 plants maintained their existence. After the oats were removed there 

 was a plentiful supply of rain and the vetches came on and made a vigor- 

 ous growth. Our notes on August 19 say: "Villous vetoh sown in oats 

 last spring is now thrifty and as high as the oat stubble — a few flowers 

 are seen." Three days later the statement appears: "Vetches grow- 

 ing rapidly and now hide nearly all the stubble." Growth continued 

 luxuriant through September, but was checked by the frosts of October, 

 though the foliage was still uninjured. 



On November 12 five square rods were cut and weighed, furnishing 430 

 pounds of green forage, or at the rate of nearly seven tons per acre. 



Our experience in feeding this vetch was somewhat unsuccessful at 

 first. During about six weeks the rams belonging to the college were 

 pastured on rape and crimson clover in an enclosure adjoining the plot of 

 vetch, and from time to time small quantities of the latter were cut and 

 given to them. This was eaten quite reluctantly, although the pasture 

 was very short. A little later two valuable rams, newly purchased, 

 were fed in the stables on green rape and vetch. At first the rape was 

 eaten freely and the vetch with some hesitation, and after a few days the 

 rams refused the vetch altogether. Later in the season as cold weather 

 came on and other green feed became scarce some of these vetches were 

 cut and fed to cows and sheep. The cows ate them heartily; the sheep 

 not quite so well. Possibly the frosts of autumn may have modified 

 the flavor of the vetches somewhat, or the result may have been due to 

 the keener appetites of the stock as colder weather came on. Vetches 

 are highly nutritious, even more so apparently than clover. An analysis 

 quoted in a circular on this plant issued last year by the Department of 

 Agriculture gives their content of protein or nitrogenous matter in the 

 dried material as 22.78 per cent. It is not at all uncommon for stock to 

 refuse leguminous plants as food, or choose the ordinary grasses in pref- 

 erence, notwithstanding the higher nutritive value of the legumes. With 

 a little care in feeding, however, it is well known that pea vines, bean 

 straw and other fodders of this class are eaten by most kinds of stock, 

 and prove highly desirable foods. We think, therefore, that no one need 

 have any apprehension that this vetch cannot be made available as fod- 

 der, or that any reluctance that may be manifested by stock toward 

 accepting it cannot be overcome. A favorable report upon hairy vetch 

 appears in a recent bulletin of the Ohio Experimental Station in which 

 it is stated that this plant is relished by sheep, horses and cattle. 



The hairy vetch is a slender plant, the stems often trailing upon the 

 ground, where there is sufficient room, to a distance of six to ten feet. 

 It is recommended on this account to sow the seed with oats if sown in 

 the spring, or with rye if sown in the fall or late summer. Our expe- 

 rience in seeding with oats as above recorded was not at all successful 



