Inter-Planted Crops 131 



or where it is not important to secure a heavy growth in 

 the spring, a bushel or more of oats may be used instead of 

 rye. 



The high cost of seed has doubtless prevented an even 

 more extensive use of hairy vetch for orchard purposes. 

 However, it is probably practicable for many fruit-growers, 

 after they get a start, to grow enough seed for their own use. 

 Sometimes it is possible to leave narrow strips of vetch in 

 the rows between the trees without plowing it under, with 

 a view to its forming seed. Where the seed matures in this 

 way in the spring and falls to the ground it will germinate in 

 the late summer or early fall.^ 



Common vetch (Vicia sativa). 



The range of usefulness of the common vetch for orchard 

 purposes is relatively restricted. It is suitable for fall seed- 

 ing in the southern portions of North Carolina and Ten- 

 nessee and in the tier of states immediately to the south- 

 ward and westward, including the most of Arkansas and 

 Louisiana, and adjacent areas in northwestern Texas and 

 southwestern Oklahoma; also on the Pacific coast west 

 of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains. It has also 

 been used with satisfaction in eastern Washington. 



For cover-crop purposes common vetch is used more on 

 the Pacific coast than elsewhere, though there is no apparent 

 reason why it should not be satisfactory in the South. The 

 plants withstand remarkably well the tramping incident 

 to harvesting a crop of fruit. 



In the West it is generally seeded either broadcast or with 

 a drill in September or October, and commonly mixed with 

 oats. This combination is especially recommended both 

 1 Farmers' BuU. 529, p. 7. 



