HAIRY-VETCH SEED PRODUCTION. 29 
market, which sometimes means shipping to a seedsman at some 
distant point. For this reason, if for no other, hairy-vetch seed 
growing is likely to be centralized at points where enough seed is 
produced to pay some one for handling the business. 
SEED SAVING FOR HOME USE. 
Hairy-vetch seed can be produced in most localities where the 
plant can be grown for forage and green manure. MHairy-vetch seed 
growing is not a specialized business to be left to certain persons who 
are particularly equipped for the work. Every man can grow his 
own seed just as he grows his own corn, potatoes, and beans. While 
there will always be a demand for commercial seed from those who 
can not obtain local seed or can not conveniently grow their own, the 
large growers of hairy vetch should not have to buy seed. Seed can 
be grown at home at a fraction of the cost of purchased seed. The 
chief difficulty is to do this without interfering with other farm 
operations. Theseed does not ripen until the last of June, when other 
work often is pressing. Furthermore, it is usually too late to plant 
other crops and the seed must be grown either as a catch crop or in 
combination with some other enterprise. - 
The fitting into the rotation of a small acreage of hairy vetch for 
seed is a challenge to the farmer’s ingenuity. Few satisfactory 
systems have thus far been developed, and there is no one method 
that can be used in all situations, owing to the variations in crop 
combinations possible in different localities. The chief factor to 
consider is the length of time the hairy vetch can be allowed to occupy 
the land. 
On land which must be planted to other crops as early as June, 
hairy vetch must be removed before any of the pods areripe. Conse- 
quently, there is no chance to save seed. Practically the only way 
to overcome this difficulty is to maintain a permanent seed patch in 
some out-of-the-way corner on the farm. Such aseed patch reseeds 
itself indefinitely and requires no attention except to keep the weeds 
pulled out and to prepare a seed bed by harrowing after harvest. A 
seed patch of an acre furnishes enough seed for planting about 8 acres. 
A plan for growing corn and hairy-vetch seed simultaneously is 
being used in a few places in the South. The vetch is planted with a 
3-hoe drill in strips 6 feet apart. In the spring the vacant spaces 
between the strips are plowed out with a turning plow or middle 
buster and harrowed twice with a 1-horse cultivator. Corn is planted 
in the rows thus provided. After the corn is planted the hairy vetch 
is kept pulled back from the rows until the corn plants are knee high, 
following which the field receives no further attention. The corn, of 
course, can not be cultivated, owing to the presence of the vetch 
between the rows. The yield of corn is quite as good as with other 
methods of planting in wide rows, and the lack of intertillage saves 
