284 



The Tare, or Vetch Culture. 



Vol. VII. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Tare, or Vetch Culture. 



It is very desirable that we should cast 

 about, and see if there be not other crops, 

 besides those that are grown by every one, 

 that might be raised, either as food for stock 

 or for manufacturing purposes. With this 

 view I would advocate the cultivation of the 

 tare or vetch, of which we hear surprising 

 accounts, and which could be raised in this 

 country to the greatest perfection, if the 

 times and seasons, and situations were to be 

 watched as carefully as they are elsewhere. 

 I was shown, the last spring, a sample of 

 tare-seed which had been brought to this 

 country by an English emigrant, for the 

 purpose of cultivation ; and was soon after 

 informed by a seed merchant, that they had 

 been sown with a prospect of success ; and 

 was given the promise of a faithful report 

 at the end of the summer, for publication in 

 the Cabinet — but this I have not received, 

 nor did I expect it ; for the person who 

 brought the seed from England, although 

 professing to know all about it, made the 

 fatal mistake, of selecting the winter, for 

 the spring variety; an error which would 

 not bear reporting. The seed of the winter 

 tare, is much blacker and rounder than that 

 of the spring variety; and if sown in the 

 spring, will not produce half a crop; while 

 the spring tare, if sown in the autumn, will 

 not stand the winter — a consideration of the 

 greatest importance ; but, as we have seen, 

 apt to be overlooked, even by Englishmen 

 themselves. Then again, the land should 

 be suitable to their growth; rather moist, 

 and enriched with manure; the season of 

 sowing also must be propitious; and then, 

 if every thing hits, the crop will be asto- 

 nishingly productive and profitable; leaving 

 the land in a most perfect state of culture 

 for a full and heavy crop of turnips, ruta- 

 baga, sugar-beet, or mangel wurzel ; after 

 having given far more green food than the 

 best meadows afford, suitable for the feed of 

 every kind of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs; 

 and in the finest condition for grain of any 

 kind the following spring, after two green 

 crops. 



An English writer says, "Between the 

 29th of August and the 4th of September, 

 I ploughed and sowed, with the winter vetch 

 or tare, 18 acres of barley stubble. The 

 whole summer having been exceedingly 

 dry, the land ploughed as dry as ashes, and 

 appeared to have not moisture sufficient to 

 bring up the seed ; I chose, however, to sow 

 it in this state, because I was apprehensive 

 that if rain came before sowing, the ground 

 might fall so flat that I should not bury the 



seed with the harrows. After sowing the 

 seed, I trod the land with sheep; and not- 

 withstanding the great drought, by the 19th 

 of September the tares had come up thick 

 and strong ; the sowing in this maimer suc- 

 ceeded to admiration, for as they came up 

 at first exceedingly strong, so they held their 

 own all winter, and proved the thickest crop 

 I ever grew; yielding me about 12 tons of 

 green food per acre, which could have been 

 converted into three tons of superlative hay. 

 My success I attributed, in a great measure, 

 to early sowing on a dry and pulverized tilth; 

 for the next year I was not able to sow my 

 winter tares until the lSlh of October; the 

 season being wet, and the land ploughing 

 and harrowing heavily, but not more so than 

 we generally desire for wheat ; nor did the 

 land tread while harrowing : yet, although 

 the winter proved very mild until the be- 

 ginning of February, when there came a 

 little frost, the vetches never throve, but 

 looked dwindling and of a rusty colour, 

 which I attributed to late sowing on a cold 

 and wet tilth; and yet the soil was not na- 

 turally stiff or heavy, but a mixed loam and 

 friable. About the middle of February, 

 there fell a hard frost with an easterly 

 wind, which destroyed the whole crop, root 

 and branch. So much for late sowing on a 

 wet and cold tilth." 



I copy the following account from an 

 English work, as a conclusion to the above, 

 as few of our friends have ever had the op- 

 portunity of seeing the growth of the tare, 

 or witnessed the exceedingly productive crop 

 of green food that might be raised by careful 

 management. 



"The tare is a pulse of the pea kind; its 

 vegetative powers are superior both to the 

 pea and the bean, being productive, even on 

 lands too poor for them. This plant may be 

 considered as a link between grain crops 

 and the artificial grasses, since it may be 

 grown and applied to either purpose, most 

 congenial to the wants of the agriculturist, 

 or the nature of the soil ; in consequence of 

 this quality of the tare, and its strong vege- 

 tative powers, it ranks amongst the most 

 valuable plants that can be grown; it may 

 be profitably raised on poor gravelly, or 

 clayey soils, or fresh broken up lavs, as well 

 as on lands of the most fertile quality; with 

 the certainty of a fair produce on the former, 

 and without the least fear from excessive 

 fertility on the latter, except when required 

 for seed. The tare grows in length, from 

 three to six feet, producing blossoms and 

 pods, somewhat after the manner of the 

 pea, but on a smaller haulm, and therefore 

 more recumbent. It will follow after any 

 crop for green food, lightening the land con- 



