30 BULLETIN 876, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
labor. The hairy vetch is usually allowed to fall where it grows, al- 
though if a flock of sheep is available the animals are turned into the 
field to eat off the half-dead vines. Enough seed shatters to provide 
a uniform reseeding. No record is available of the use of any system 
of this kind in the North, but some such method might be devised. 
The problem of seed saving is greatly simplified if the hairy vetch 
can be allowed to stand in the field until the lower three or four pods 
are ripe. Enough seed then shatters for replanting. If the same 
ground is to be reseeded the crop is mowed on a warm, dry day and 
handled as roughly as possible in order to shake out the loose seed 
before the plants leave the field. When the seed is to be saved for 
planting elsewhere the process is reversed; the crop is mowed in damp 
weather and handled gently. In the barn the hay is stored on a 
tight floor or on a canvas, or, better, on a shelf of 2-inch slats raised 
a foot or more above the floor. The hay is unloaded with a horse 
fork and dumped from a considerable height or is shaken vigorously 
by hand when storing and when removing. Frequently, a peck or 
two of seed sifts out of each ton of hay and is recovered from beneath 
the slat floor. 
Hairy vetch which can be left until dead ripe can be handled 
easily for seed, and usually enough will shatter for reseeding. One 
of the most popular methods of growing seed for home use is to mow 
or pasture the crop early in the season and save the second crop for 
seed. Ordinarily the yield from the second crop is not much more 
than is needed for farm purposes, but it is sometimes quite heavy. 
When the second crop is light it usually is not harvested, but the 
seeds are scattered by dragging the ground with a spike-tooth harrow. 
Hairy vetch which has been allowed to become overripe does not 
make first-quality hay and is often plowed under. By plowing 
5 inches deep for several years the soil is gradually filled with seed 
to the depth of the furrow slice and a full reseeding is assured each 
year. In orchards a common practice is to turn the crop under for 
green manure except for the strips in the rows with the trees. These 
are allowed to go to seed. During the summer the cross-cultivation 
of the orchard drags the ripe plants over the ground and secures a 
fairly uniform reseeding. _ 
HARD SEED AND LONGEVITY. 
Many farm seeds, especially those of the legumes, have a hard, 
impervious seed coat which retards the entrance of air and moisture 
and delays germination. These ‘‘hard seeds,” as they are called, 
have nothing to distinguish them from ordinary seed, yet they remain 
in the ground several months or even years without germinating 
and are a frequent cause of poor stands. Hairy vetch is especially 
lable to contain hard seeds, seldom containmg less than 5 
and often as much as 30 per cent in new seed. The percentage of 
e i 
% 3 
X. 
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