120 FORAGE CROPS. 



will more effectively smother weeds. When sown 

 with a mixed crop, as winter rye or crimson clover, 

 the proportion of the vetch seed to be sown must 

 measurably be determined by the ability of the land 

 to grow one or the other of the crops named. The 

 more aggressive the crop on that particular soil the 

 less of it should be sown. Ordinarily, from one to 

 two pecks of the vetch seed should suffice to sow in 

 a mixed crop, whether of the spring or winter 

 variety. The spring vetch is frequently sown with 

 some cereal, as oats or barley, to provide pasture. 



Cultivation. The harrow is probably the only 

 implement that can benefit the vetch after it has 

 begun to grow. As with peas, many of the weeds 

 that would otherwise grow in the crop may be 

 destroyed by a judicious use of the harrow before 

 the vetches get above the surface of the ground. 

 But when such seeds as rape or crimson clover are 

 sown with the vetches, the harrowing if done at all 

 should be done with much discrimination, and with 

 crimson clover it would probably be better not to 

 harrow at all. But the sowing of plants that would 

 easily be injured by the harrowing could be deferred 

 until the vetches were ready to be harrowed. 



Pasturing. Vetches are more commonly 

 grazed off by sheep than by other classes of live 

 stock. They are ready to be pastured when several 

 inches high. If grown along with cereals, as oats, 

 the vetches, like the oats, will come again and 

 with equal vigor where the conditions are favorable 

 to the growth of the vetches. Care should be taken 

 not to pasture off autumn vetches too early nor too 

 closely, lest the winter weather should harm them. 

 The extent of such pasturing during- the late autumn 



