THE VETCHES 409 



THE VETCHES 



529. Description. Though several species of vetch are 

 grown in various parts of the country, the most common is 

 the winter or hairy vetch, Vicia villosa. This is sown in the 

 late summer or early fall as a cover crop in orchards, or in 

 combination with fall grain as a forage crop for hay or for 

 soiling. The vetch plant produces a trailing vine several feet 

 in length, with numerous pinnate leaves consisting of eight to 

 fourteen small leaflets. The bluish-purple flowers are pro- 

 duced in racemes in the axils of 



the leaves. The pods are straight, 

 about \}/2 inches long, and contain 

 several brown or black seeds. 



530. Culture and Uses. When 

 sown for hay or as a winter cover 

 crop and soil improver, from 1 to 

 1J/2 bushels of vetch seed are re- 

 quired for an acre. Oats or beard- 

 less wheat are good grains to grow 

 with vetch for hay, while as a 

 cover crop or green manure there 

 is nothing better than rye. The 



Fig. 127. Hairy vetch. 



time to cut for hay depends more 



on the grain than on the vetch, for it continues to grow 

 and produce seeds over a considerable period. Vetch is 

 sometimes sown in the fall on Johnson grass sod and cut 

 the following summer for hay. By the time the Johnson 

 grass is ready to cut the vetch will have reseeded itself 

 sufficiently to produce another crop the following fall. 



The greatest usefulness of winter vetch is in the South as 

 a cover crop and soil improver on poor lands, though its best 

 growth is on fertile soils. In the Central and Northern 



