106 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
and two-fifths acres of potatoes planted after vetch on 
soil deficient in fertility produced nearly 450 bushels, 
and potatoes planted after vetch on some of the sandiest 
land on his farm produced at the rate of 150 bushels 
to the acre, and double the amount of potatoes grown 
side by side on the same soil after crimson clover plowed 
under. 
No doubt the question suggested to the reader’s mind 
is: Why is vetch of so much value as a soil or fertilizer 
crop? The question may be answered with a few words. 
It is the greatest nitrogen-gathering and humus-produc- 
ing plant found in Nature’s garden. 
We believe it to be true as holy writ that for every 
disease of the human body Nature has a remedy if man 
can only find it, and that for every disease of the soil 
there is a remedy to be found in the plant, mineral or 
animal kingdom, and it is up to man to find and ap- 
ply it. 
If soil was originally built up by mixing vegetable 
matter with disintegrated minerals and stones, then why 
can it not be kept built up by the same process? 
Under Southern European skies vetch is supposed to 
have had its birth. In all Europe it is cultivated for 
forage purposes, it being regarded equal to clover in 
nutritive qualities. Sown in late summer or early au- 
tumn, it is harvested the next year. If in the spring, 
it is cut the same year. 
The American farmer, slow or overly cautious in 
trying the unknown, has rarely cultivated it. As stated, 
it is an annual plant, and must be seeded each year, al- 
though it readily reseeds itself, as I have pastured it 
