OTHER LEGUMES 193 



2. The Fetches 



The vetches are another group of legumes, grown most 

 extensively on the Pacific Coast, less commonly in the South, 

 and hardly at all in the North. Michigan, however, has 

 made some excellent hairy vetch crop records. Although 

 more than one hundred different varieties of vetch are 

 known, but two are commonly grown in the United States, 

 common vetch and hairy vetch. 



Common vetch. Common vetch is an annual, closely 

 resembling the garden pea. Its stems are very slender, 

 and grow from three to five feet or more in length. There 

 are many different varieties of common vetch, of which the 

 gray-seeded- is most commonly grown in this country. 



Low temperatures are fatal to common vetch ; it can not 

 be successfully raised in regions where the thermometer 

 goes lower than about fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. 



Hairy vetch. Hairy vetch is much more hardy than 

 common vetch, and may be raised in almost any portion 

 of the United States. It finds its greatest use in supplying 

 a legume for forage and improving the soil where red clover 

 or alfalfa does not succeed, or where a short rotation crop 

 is desired. 



Hairy vetch has great power to resist drought, and 

 does well on a sandy soil. It will also thrive on a soil so 

 alkaline that most legumes refuse to grow on it. 



3. Soy-Beans 



Soy-beans are native to Asia, where they have been 

 grown from time immemorial. In China, India and Japan, 

 some two hundred varieties are cultivated for human food, 

 furnishing a staple article of diet in many regions. They 

 have not proved palatable to Americans, however, and are 

 raised in this country chiefly as one of our forage crops. 



