1921.] 



Notes on Forage Crots. 



19 



a combination of qualities not found in any other pasture plant. 

 It is extremely hardy, has a penetrating root, spreads rapidly, 

 and produces heavy crops of high quality- If it could be 

 developed as an agricultural crop it would solve the 

 problem of clover-sick land, and further add to our 

 pastures a crop equal in quality to wild white clover, 

 and in productiveness to the ephemeral red clover. Sir 

 John Sinclair speaks of a field in Scotland growing a crop of this 

 vetch, and giving yields equal to Lucerne. In its wild state it 

 is a far superior plant to the wild ancestor of the cultivated 

 vetch, and but for a single w^eakness, would have been to-day 

 one of our most prized farm plants. 



The writer's attention was drawn to the plant many years ago 

 by the preference cow^s showed for its herbage. Seeds were 

 collected with a view to sowing a trial plot for grazing or mowing, 

 but none of the seeds sown germinated. This failure was 

 experienced by others, some of whom suggest insect attack as 

 the cause, but it is more probable that the seeds resemble hard 

 clover seeds. 



It is only necessary to picture a field of the ordinary vetch 

 with a permanent character to estimate the possibilities of this 

 plant if it could be brought into cultivation. The writer tried 

 for several years to obtain hybrids of this vetch with the culti- 

 vated vetch but failed. 



Siberian Vetch. — Siberian Vetch {Vicia villosa) is another 

 neglected species of vetch. It is largely grown in America, 

 especially on very poor light soils, where it is known as the Hairy 

 Vetch, and to a considerable extent in Russia and other conti- 

 nental countries. During the 18th century it was grown to 

 some extent in England, and its chief characteristics were noted 

 accurately. 



Mills' Practical Husbandry published in 1762 says: — 

 " Another species of Vetch, viz.. The Siberian, hardly known I 

 believe to the generality of farmers in this country, bids fair to 

 become perhaps the most useful of all fodder : for its stalks grow 

 to a jTjreat length, and are well furnished with leaves which do 

 not decay in the autumn like those of the other ^^orts. but con- 

 tinue green all winter in defiance of the hardest frost." 



The Siberian Vetch is semi-biennial in character, and should 

 be sown after midsummer and before September: if sown in the 

 spring it produces seed in August and aftcu-wards niaki^s a second 

 heavv growth which contiTiues until cut down by frost. At the 



B 2 



