1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5o7 
HAIRY VETCH (VICIA VILLOSA) FOR GREEN 
MANURING. 
PART II. 
The vetch plants are very nutritious and easily di¬ 
gestible for all classes of live stock and poultry, vetch 
hay being recognized where it is known as one of the 
best, if not the best of all legumes for hay purposes. 
Analyses, as shown in the Year Book of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture for 18S9, and the New 
Haven Agricultural Experiment Station report for 
1890 and other reports, show vetch to be especially 
valuable for feeding purposes. Kilgore (North Caro¬ 
lina State Board Bulletin, 7, 1904) gives 
the average fertilizing value of Hairy 
vetch hay as $25.12 per acre, 85 per cent 
of which is due to the nitrogen content 
alone, “the principal part of which w r as 
derived directly from the air.” Eighty- 
six per cent of the nitrogen of the vetch 
plant is found in the hay; 132.5 pounds of 
nitrogen per acre afforded by the entire 
plant, or the equivalent of a ton of cot- 
ton-seed meal or 1,000 pounds of nitrate 
of soda, worth $20 to $25. Chas. F. 
Penny (Delaware Bulletin, 60) says that 
vetch (roots and tops) afforded 129 
pounds of nitrogen per acre, value $19.64. 
Of this amount 108 pounds was found in 
tops or hay. These figures were taken 
from fields four months after seeding 
(Spring seeding). In comparison with 
Red clover, two-tliirds of the same weight 
of vetch plants showed nearly an equal 
amount of nitrogen. J. F. Dugger (Ala¬ 
bama Bulletin, 105) shows the amount of 
nitrogen contained in the crop at various 
stages of growth, all based on weights 
per acre: Vines just before blooming, 
dry weight, 3,117 pounds, 117 pounds 
nitrogen; vines and roots at same time, 
137 pounds; vines in full bloom, dry 
weight, 5,789 pounds, 159 pounds; vines 
and roots at same time, 180 pounds; vines with seed 
pods formed, dry weight, 5,463 pounds, 173 pounds; 
vines and roots at same time, 202.8 pounds. 
On the average the nitrogen added is equivalent to a 
ton of cotton-seed meal, and it is considered that more 
than half the nitrogen came from the air. Baessler 
found that Hairy vetch afforded more nitrogen per 
acre than Crimson clover, lupines, etc., equivalent to 
127 pounds per acre of nitrogen. V. Strebel found 
Hairy vetch afforded about 150 pounds per acre of 
nitrogen. 
These results were all with inoculated plants having 
the tubercles or nodules on the roots, either through 
natural or artificial inoculation. 
These nodules indicate that the 
plants are getting the benefit of cer¬ 
tain minute soil bacteria which 
are able to extract nitrogen directly 
from the air—“free nitrogen.” They 
first attack the root tissues, form¬ 
ing small protuberances or “nod¬ 
ules,” and the plant dissolves and 
feeds in the nitrogenous substances 
which the bacteria build up in these 
nodules. 
The above results have been given 
somewhat in detail to show the 
great value of this crop. Animals 
must learn to eat the plants, as any 
new crop, after which they seem 
to prefer the vetch hay to any 
other. Its value as a hay need only 
be tried to be demonstrated. For 
hay the crop should be cut when 
the plants are in full bloom. The 
crop is handled like clover or Al¬ 
falfa, and is little if any more diffi¬ 
cult to cure. For seed the crop should 
be cut when most of the pods are 
ripe, the exact time being found 
only by experience. The yield of 
seed is from five to 20 bushels per 
acre. The writer is engaged in 
breeding some strains acclimated to 
the Connecticut Valley and other northern sections. 
So far the home-grown seed has proven more valuable 
than the foreign. It is hoped that in a few years abun¬ 
dant home-grown seed will be secured for use, but at 
present we are largely dependent on foreign-grown 
seed. An average yield of cured hay of vetch is about 
two and one-half tons per acre, but with favorable con¬ 
ditions four to six tons can be secured. 
Hairy vetch can be sown in the Fall after Summer 
crops have been removed, and a good growth secured 
in time for plowing under the following Spring. This 
season the crops plowed under produced from 14,000 
to 33,000 pounds greeq weight, about one-fifth to 
eighth being dry weight, before they were plowed under 
in May. The nodules on the roots were very numer¬ 
ous where the ground was plowed, the nodules showing 
like a coating of fertilizer. Some of the clusters of 
nodules were as large as hazel nuts. The roots are 
very fine, and penetrate the soil in every direction. The 
crop is easily plowed under, and then rots quickly. It 
does not interfere with cultivation, and is preferable 
to most other cover crops, if not all others for the 
North. This vetch can be sown in tlie Spring or early 
Summer and will produce a good crop under favor¬ 
able conditions when sown at this time. The experience 
of the writer is that it is preferable to other species or 
A MICHIGAN RASPBERRY FIELD. Fig. 245. 
varieties for Spring sowing and is the only successful 
Fall-grown variety of vetch. 
Hairy vetch would be a very fine cover crop for 
orchards, and is highly recommended for this purpose 
by the eminent authority on this subject, J. H. Plale. 
It is also adapted to many other purposes. This crop 
should be grown on a small scale at first, until experi¬ 
ence has shown the best way to handle it under indi¬ 
vidual conditions. A part of the crop should be saved 
for seed, if found desirable, and acclimated strains 
secured in this way. This will enable farmers to secure 
strains suited to different localities. 
U. S. Dept, of Agriculture. A. d. shamei! 
good pickers will pick three and four crates a day, 
much depending on “the woman with the carrier,” as 
well as on the grower’s industry and success in growing 
great crops. The carrier is a shallow, crated box with 
a handle, holding six quart boxes. One box is held in 
the left hand, filled by the right hand, and quickly ex¬ 
changed for an empty box in the carrier. 
The boxes are heaped, as in the walk to the packing 
shed they will settle quite a little. This shed is a rough 
structure erected for the purpose; the quart boxes are 
packed into the crates, a record is kept and the picker 
goes back to the vines. They are told openly or by in¬ 
sinuation “to pick clean and not to talk”; to tell them 
not to eat of the luscious fruit would be 
impracticable. 
Some growers rather than have berries 
remain unpicked will engage more help 
than needed or may overestimate the rip¬ 
ening; so it frequently happens that the 
picking gives out, and after two or three 
crates are filled the tired pickers stray off 
or wait for the wagon. Some fields are 
picked only every other day, while some 
arrange to have one-half of the field gone 
over each day alternately. At noon a 
carried lunch is eaten in the shade of 
nearby trees. The liberal grower some¬ 
times furnishes ice cream or lemonade 
towards the end of the season to those 
“who have stayed by him.” After 20 min¬ 
utes of eating and laughing the more in¬ 
dustrious hasten back to the work. To¬ 
wards evening the grower who lives from 
one to four miles from town takes his 
berries in a spring wagon, the crates cov¬ 
ered with canvas to shade and keep them 
from dust, to the railroad station. From 
there they are to be shipped by boat across 
Lake Michigan to Chicago, there to pass 
through a commission man’s, jobber’s and 
broker’s, and the grocer’s hands, and 
- finally to the consumers. 
But that is only part of the market. 
Away back in early Spring the proprietor of a local 
canning factory has contracted with most of the farm¬ 
ers for all of their berries, without the boxes or crates 
for 75 cents a crate. These contracts are now being 
filled, and berries are being put into glass and tin for 
Winter eaters. Then, too, some berries are evaporated 
or “dried,” as we used to say when sun and wind and 
our mothers’ cook stoves did the drying. Now as an 
evaporator, including the building to house it and the 
workers, is used, the more pretentious word is right. 
The length of the raspberry picking season depends on 
the rainfall. The woman who counts every dollar will 
say it is only eight or 10 days, the grower in engaging 
his helpers offers three to four 
weeks’ work, but it can never be 
told beforehand, as no one knows 
the rain’s programme, and on that 
depends the raspberry crop. 
J. J. G. 
INTERIOR VIEW OF A MICHIGAN RASPBERRY HOUSE. Fig. 246. 
RASPBERRY PICKING IN MICHIGAN. 
It is early July in southwestern Michigan. Black 
raspberries are ripe and the pickers are busy. The 
grower has engaged them from among his neighbors, 
and every morning he or some one hired for the pur¬ 
pose, brings a wagon load of pickers from town. Women 
and girls make the best pickers; they need the spend¬ 
ing money, and are steady, careful .workers. This is 
not six days a week and 10 hours a day of work, for 
the berries do not always ripen the same; dry weather 
becomes a great check to the yield, and the pickers are 
often less and often more than are required. Twenty- 
£yf, cents is p.aid fp/ picking a 10-quart crate, and 
FRIEND OF LIME-SULPHUR. 
I take it from Ruralisms, page 
462, that most people do not get 
along first-rate with the lime-sul- 
plnir spray. I am inclined to the 
view of Mr. Hale. I have no trou¬ 
ble whatever with it; moreover I 
always make a practice of holding 
nozzle rod for our line of hose my¬ 
self. It is more trouble to prepare 
and a little more trouble to apply 
than Bordeaux, but not enough 
more to do much kicking about. 
Outside of being a little more bother 
and work than Bordeaux, the whole 
thing can be got along with in a 
very satisfactory manner if you' 
only just go at it right. In the first 
place, use lines of hose long enough 
to get away from the horses, none 
less than 50 feet. I use 50-foot line 
of hose for all kinds of work, even 
in spraying currant and gooseberry 
bushes. The advantages are that with long line of hose 
you can keep away from the horses; you do not have to 
be continually starting up and stopping the rig; your 
long line of hose will enable you always to work from 
the windward side, so there is never any occasion for 
trying to spray directly against the wind. 
As to its caustic effect which seems to be such a 
terror, I always work bare-handed. I never have sore 
hands or face.~ I must admit that my hands look pretty 
black and rough after a week’s work, but they never 
get sore. I never use vaseline or any other preparation, 
and above all things, use only clear water and plenty of 
it for washing hands and face. Never use soap of any 
kind. i A- ?? loop. 
Pennsylvania, 
