26 CULTIVATED FORAGE CROPS OF THE NORTHWEST. 
VercHEs.—In the Willamette Valley, Oregon, spring vetch ( Vicza 
sativa) is commonly grown for hay and annual pasture. Mr. T. H. 
Cooper, of Corvallis, uses vetch for his silo, after which he uses green 
corn. He sows the seed in the fall with wheat or oats, 2 bushels of 
the mixture containing about a peck of grain. The crop is cut in 
June. Spring vetch is cultivated here and there in the cooler parts 
of the Northwest, but the crop as a whole is very insignificant when 
compared with the staple forage crops of the region. The plant is a 
legume, and can gather nitrogen from the air in a manner similar to 
clover and alfalfa. Hence it furnishes forage rich in protein and at 
the same time acts as a soil renovator. While spring vetch can not 
be successfully grown over much of the area under consideration on 
account of the heat and drought, yet it is to be highly recommended 
for those localities having a cool, moist growing season. In the upper 
coast region it can be sown in the fall. In the mountain regions it 
should be sown in spring. It is best to sow with grain, as the latter 
tends to hold the vetch upright, and it can thus be handled for hay 
more easily, and also because the grain mixture produces a more 
evenly balanced feed. After the mixture of grain and vetch is cut, a 
second crop of vetch will usually appear, which can be saved for seed. 
Hairy or sand vetch@ ( Vicza villosa) has been tried to a limited extent, 
but the results over most of the region described are not promising. 
It thrives, however, in the Palouse region and tends to become a weed 
in wheat fields. 
BALING HAY. 
As in other parts of the United States, it is customary to bale hay 
for convenience in transportation. Most of the hay consumed in the 
larger cities is of this kind. The baled hay upon the markets of the 
Northwest is for the most part restricted to alfalfa, clover, timothy, 
grain, and wild or native hay. In San Francisco and other cities of 
California, grain hay takes the lead, while at Seattle and the cities of 
the Sound, timothy is most used, the kind depending in part on the 
availability and in part on the demand of the market. Alfalfa is, in 
many cases, as available as timothy, or more so; but the latter is used 
in the cities in preference because it is believed to be more suitable 
for horses. In fact, timothy hay is taken as the standard upon the 
city markets. The type of press used at San Jose, Cal., is shown in 
eae Val hit", lt 
The item of freight often enters greatly into the market price of baled 
hay. For example, during the summer of 1901, grain hay was worth $8 
per ton at Raymond, a town upon the railroad, while at Yosemite the 
freight charges brought it up to $40 per ton, and at the same time the 
«¥or further information upon the vetches, see Circular No.6, Division of Agros- 
tology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, ‘‘The Cultivated Vetches.”’ 
