10 BULLETIN 876, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
follows corn as a rule, although it may succeed early potatoes or a 
grain crop. Hairy vetch must be planted by September 15, and 
therefore it can not follow late potatoes, beans, or sugar beets, which 
occupy the ground until the latter part of that month. Occasionally 
the vetch is seeded in buckwheat and the rye broadcasted later. 
Rye and vetch seldom follow well a timothy meadow, as the old sod 
is hard to subdue. 
Hairy vetch and rye can be succeeded by any crop that follows 
wheat orrye. A common rotation on the heavier soils is (1) potatoes 
or beans, (2) corn, (3) rye and hairy vetch, (4 and 5) timothy and 
mixed florven On sandy soils and in the omen counties timothy 
and red chover may well be replaced by orchard grass and sweet 
clover, but in either case the rotation provides for two legumes in 
three years with one plowing. More or less volunteer hairy vetch 
appears in the clover at the first cutting, but it disappears entirely 
by the time the second crop is ready. 
A serious objection to saving hairy vetch for seed is the sacrifice of 
the green manure, which in many cases is the principal object in 
growing the crop. A rotation that provides for both seed and green 
manure is the simple one of (1) corn, (2) rye and hairy vetch. By 
allowing the hairy vetch to become quite ripe before harvesting, 
sufficient seed shatters to produce a heavy volunteer stand, which is 
plowed under in time for corn planting in the spring. The straw 
from the seed crop is fed to live stock, and the manure is plowed 
under or spread on the ground in the fall. In either case, two crops 
of vetch are turned under every two years and in addition a cash crop 
of corn and one of vetch seed secured. 
Hairy vetch and rye are sometimes grown year after year on the 
same ground, especially in areas where conditions are not favorable 
for corn. This system has the advantage of providing a money crop 
each year with little labor or expense, but the yields fall off rather 
rapidly even when the straw is returned. Continuous vetch growing 
should be accompanied by a yearly application of phosphatic fer- 
tilizer, or on cheap land the crop should be saved for seed one year, 
followed by a volunteer green-manure crop the next. 
In orchards hairy vetch and rye are usually grown continuously, 
as the primary purpose of the crop is for winter cover and green 
manure. In a few localities the constant: plowing under of a legumi- 
nous green-manure crop is no longer thought desirable, as the soil 
becomes too rich in nitrogen for the best growth of the trees. In such 
cases the seed crop offers a means of disposing of the plants without 
plowing them under, while still having the use of a winter cover crop. 
In most orchards, however, hairy vetch is more valuable for green 
manure than for seed, and it is doubtful whether a seed crop should 
be removed more often than once in two or three years. é 
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