ESTABLISHING VETCHES 185 



ing cows or other animals. I have seen astonishing 

 growths of this plant in Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, 

 Alabama, Mississippi and other states. It is not, so far 

 as I have seen, regularly in use by farmers anywhere. 



The difficulties as to vetch are several. The seed is 

 expensive, costing now (1910) 6 cents a pound, and it 

 requires 70 to 75 pounds to the acre for a good seeding. 

 Then the seed lies in the earth sometimes for a year or 

 more and may come up in small grain and prove a trou- 

 blesome weed, though it will not interfere with any cul- 

 tivated crop. It must absolutely have inoculation or it 

 makes very slender growth. I know of no legume de- 

 pending more on its bacteria than the hairy vetch. In 

 Louisiana I sowed vetches on sandy loam soil, well worn, 

 with the result that few plants exceeded a foot in height, 

 while a few plants accidentally inoculated made a growth 

 of many times that. I should say from observation that 

 on poor soils there would be more than 10 times the 

 growth of hairy vetch where the soil is inoculated over 

 where it is not. The Alabama station reported a growth 

 of 232 pounds to the acre without inoculation and 2,540 

 pounds with inoculation. 



In the South vetch may be sown on Bermuda grass 

 sod, which may be disked or even plowed to give a seed- 

 bed. It should, however, be grazed off close, or mown 

 as soon as hot weather begins, otherwise its shade will 

 destroy the grass. At the Cornell station in New York 

 three months' growth of hairy vetch made 6,824 pounds 

 of dry forage per acre containing 240 pounds of nitrogen, 

 53 pounds of phosphoric acid and 52 pounds of potash, 

 while during the same period cowpeas produced 2,262 



