122 FORAGE PROBLEM 



the morning and evening rations, while dry corn may be 

 used at noon. The stock will require a certain amount of 

 hay, and should have access to this as desired. Nothing 

 else is needed except the usual allowance of cottonseed or 

 linseed meal. 



Sand vetch is also known as hairy vetch. The plant 

 produces many slender branches, 6 feet long, and the 

 leaves and branches are covered with a coat of fine hairs. 

 The seeds are small and black. If the field is not pas- 

 tured too closely, the seed pods burst open when ripe and 

 reseed the field. 



Spring seed should be sown the last of April to the 

 middle of May. If grown for forage, it is well to seed 

 vetch with oats and wheat. The reason for this is that 

 the grain keeps the vetch off the ground. If the seed is 

 drilled, sow one bushel per acre. If broadcasted, i^ 

 bushels per acre. Seed also one bushel of oats as a nurse 

 crop. 



The name implies that it is best grown on a sandy loam 

 soil; however, it grows well on poor soils — and so do 

 cowpeas or clover. All stock relish the green forage and 

 cured hay. Experiments show that it yields between two 

 and three tons of hay per acre. 



Soy beans make a rich late summer pasturage, a good 

 soiling crop, a splendid ensilage crop, and a cured hay 

 equal in palatability and feeding value to alfalfa hay. 

 They yield twenty to thirty bushels of seed per acre, worth 

 $2 to $3 per bushel, and can be ground into meal that will 

 take the place of cottonseed meal, oil meal, tankage, 

 gluten or other high-class concentrates, at much less cost. 



Owing to their rapid growth, soy beans are an admi- 

 rable catch crop to follow wheat, oats, crimson clover, 

 potatoes or other early crops. They greatly improve the 

 condition of the soil upon which they grow and enrich its 

 store of nitrogen and humus. 



As compared with the valuable and widely popular 



