LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. I25 



vetches. While the oats were thus growing into a 

 crop, the vetch plants had become firmly established. 

 Although they did not make a vigorous growth until 

 after the oats were harvested, they then grew up 

 and covered the ground with a dense carpet of fine 

 foliage, which was pastured off by sheep just as the 

 winter was closing in. The late season at which 

 this plant can be pastured furnishes one reason why, 

 in some instances, it should be sown rather than rape. 



The attempts made by the author to grow the 

 vetches for autumn pasture by sowing them along 

 with oats grown as a grain crop, and in the ordinary 

 way, were not altogether successful. The shade of 

 the oats appeared to be too dense for the vetches. 

 But the circumstances under which the trials were 

 made were so unfavorable that quite a different 

 result may possibly be obtained where the conditions 

 are more favorable. 



Where the plants will survive the winter they 

 can be most profitably sown in the autumn and as 

 early as the arrival of the fall rains. It is then usual 

 to sow the seed along with winter oats or winter 

 rye. The latter is perhaps preferable* first, on 

 account of its greater hardihood, and, second, 

 because of its greater ability to grow on poor land. 

 The grain is sown with the vetch to furnish variety 

 in the pasture and to provide stems on which the 

 latter may climb, but when the crop is pastured, the 

 necessity of thus providing support for the vetches 

 would not seem to exist. 



However, the grain may greatly assist the vetch 

 in checking weed growth. The vetch starts so 

 slowly that alone it would seem to have but little 

 chance of ascendancy in the contest with weeds. One 



