178 THE VETCH CROP. 



time the first is consumed. In this case the order of 

 succession in the system of cropping is somewhat inter- 

 fered with. The winter vetches generally succeed a straw 

 crop, and being consumed early in the summer, leave the 

 land ready for a -root or fallow crop; while the spring 

 vetches may be sown either upon the winter fallow, or 

 after late turnips consumed on the land, or early ryegrass 

 cut for soiling. These again are ready for cutting about 

 the end of June, and allowing a month for the consumption 

 of the crop, there is ample time to get the land ploughed 

 up, and a crop of some quick-growing plant, as mustard 

 or buckwheat, fed off on the land before the time for sow- 

 ing the grain crops arrives, for which either of these plants 

 forms an excellent preparation. 



Although the vetch crop is cut early in the season, 

 before most of our ordinary annual weeds have formed 

 their seed, which are thus prevented from perpetuating 

 their growth, still it is of equal importance in the pre- 

 paration for this crop as for others that the system of 

 autumnal cultivation already described should be attended 

 to, and that the land should be carefully and thoroughly 

 cleaned. When this has been accomplished, the manure 

 intended for the crop should be applied ; and for this pur- 

 pose nothing is better than good farmyard dung, which 

 may be used either in a fresh state or fermented, as may 

 be most convenient for the other requirements of the 

 farm, always recollecting the equivalent proportions of 

 dung in the different states of decomposition, and that 

 vetches being gross feeders, and capable of giving a large 

 return if well fed, seldom find the condition of the soil too 

 high for their growth. The nitrogenous manures are 

 generally better adapted for leguminous plants than the 

 phosphatic ; therefore, if there be any deficiency of farm- 

 yard dung for the crop, it should be made up by Peruvian 

 guano, which should be mixed with some diluting substance, 

 as already recommended (p. 420, vol. i.), and either applied 



