LEGUMINOUS FORAGE CROPS 2OQ 



growth in case it is plowed under. The New York State Station 

 reports satisfactory results with one and a half bushels of vetch 

 and one-half bushel of rye. Others prefer one-half to one 

 bushel of vetch and one bushel of rye, on the ground that if 

 too much seed is .sown the rye will not be able to support it. 

 The rye and vetch seed are mixed and sown in the ordinary 

 grain drill. The vetch starts rather slowly and should there- 

 fore be sown quite early. In northern latitudes it may be sown 

 as early as August i, and should not be sown later than 

 October i. The high price of seed has prevented the use of 

 winter vetch as a renovating crop. 



Seed is said to germinate poorly after it is two years old. 

 When it is the plan to sow vetch regularly each season, one 

 should arrange to grow the seed. The seed is produced rather 

 abundantly. One load of ripened vetch may produce six bushels 

 of seed. It may be threshed in the ordinary threshing ma- 

 chine. Annual crops have been obtained at the Mississippi Sta- 

 tion during 12 years by self-seeding. 1 



V. VELVET BEAN 



244. Velvet Bean (Mucuna utilis Wallich.) in favorable 

 localities produces vines 30 to 50 feet in length. The purple 

 flowers, borne in clusters at intervals of two or three feet at 

 the joints of the stem, produce short, cylindrical pods, covered 

 with black, velvety down. At the Kentucky Station, pods were 

 produced which measured two and a half inches in length and 

 one-half inch in diameter, but no seeds were borne. Each pod 

 contains three to six large, rounded, brown and white mottled 

 seeds, and is constricted laterally between the seeds and often 

 more or less curved. The seed is about one-half inch in length; 

 a protruding lip characterizes the scar. 



1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Agros. Bui. No. 2 (Revised), p. 75. 



