49o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 22 , 
self—a perennial clover—and will grow forever as far 
as I know. 
“And now about the harvesting—also from my own 
expei ience. It is quite as difficult as, but no more so, 
than Red clover to put away. After all the vicissitudes 
of the experimenter we have evolved the following plan, 
which seems to work perfectly, and which I feel that 
] can recommend. Under the penalty of severe injury 
do not mow until the Alfalfa begins to bloom. When 
about a third or a half of the field is in bloom, you 
will find on examination that the plants are putting 
forth a new growth at the crown. That is evidence that 
the root system has accomplished its purpose, that ma¬ 
turity is near and that the crop should be cut in order 
to give this new growth a chance. Cut it then or you 
will seriously damage the next crop. We start the 
mowers at four or five in the afternoon, letting the 
crop lie in the swath over night. We shall not use a 
tedder next season because we find it shakes off too 
many leaves—though there are conditions which may 
force its use. After lunch the next day we use a side- 
delivery rake to throw it into windrows. If the weather 
conditions be good we leave it to cure in the row. If 
threatening, we bunch it in medium-sized cocks and 
cover with a cap 40 to 45 inches square made of heavy 
cotton sheeting, weighted with old horseshoes, scrap 
iron or what not tied to the corners with string. These 
covers cost about 14 cents each, but as they will last 
indefinitely, the cost per crop is next to nothing. They 
require neither paint nor oil and will turn the heaviest 
rains. After standing in cock until well cured, haul to 
the mow or stack.” 
HAIRY VETCH (VICIA 1 /ILLOSA) FOR GREEN 
MANURING . 
Part I. 
You inquire on page 464 about the growing of 
vetches as a green manuring crop. In the past three 
years I have been growing Hairy vetch, Vicia villosa, 
in the Connecticut Valley and elsewhere in tobacco¬ 
growing districts. A brief bulletin on this question, 
prepared by the writer, can be secured by writing the 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New 
Haven, Conn., called “A New and Valuable Cover 
Crop for Tobacco Fields.” 
Hairy vetch is an annual legume, best adapted for 
Fall sowing. It has been grown in the United States in 
limited quantities for many years, but its full value 
has not as yet been appreciated by American farmers. 
This is doubtless due in part to a lack of knowledge 
of methods of sowing the seed, handling the crop, and 
the difficulty experienced so far, in securing reliable 
seed. It is a .northern grown crop, being extensively 
used, in fact more than all other legumes in such Euro¬ 
pean countries as Russia, Norway, Sweden and Ger¬ 
many. I am informed on reliable authority that the 
farmers in Riga, Russia, sow the seed of this crop in the 
Fall, and that it is perfectly hardy, although the temper¬ 
ature frequently falls below 25 degrees below zero, F. 
It has been my experience that when the seed is prop¬ 
erly handled and sown at the right time, Hairy vetch 
is hardy in all parts of the Connecticut Valley. Last 
season I secured several bushels of Canadian grown 
seed of this crop, showing that it is hardy that far 
north. 
At present the seed of Hairy vetch is mostly im¬ 
ported from Russia, Germany, France and other Euro¬ 
pean countries. It can be purchased from almost every 
reliable seed firm in the country. Too much emphasis 
cannot be laid on the fact that it is necessary to use 
great care in buying the seed, as in some cases to my 
knowledge, seed of other cheaper and inferior vetches 
has been palmed off on the purchaser by unscrupulous 
seed dealers. Good seed costs at present from four 
to eight dollars a bushel. A number of common vetches 
grown extensively in the South, not adapted for north¬ 
ern sections, which can be grown very cheaply, are 
frequently substituted for the genuine Hairy vetch. For 
this reason it is absolutely necessary for the farmer to 
be sure of the character of the vetch seed before pur¬ 
chasing. 
The time for sowing this seed varies with conditions 
of season, etc., but as a rule it can be safely sown from 
the fifteenth of August to the fifteenth of September. 
The soil should be in good condition, preferably plowed 
and harrowed thoroughly before sowing the seed. 
However, the best crop of Hairy vetch I have ever 
seen was harrowed in on tobacco land without plowing 
last Fall after the tobacco crop had been harvested. 
The method of sowing the seed will depend on con¬ 
ditions, but the writer has usually sown it broadcast. 
The seed could be sown much better and more uni¬ 
formly with a drill if such an implement is available. 
When sown alone V /2 bushel of seed should be sown 
to the acre. When sown with rye or other crop, one 
bushel or less to the acre is preferable. If the seed is 
sown broadcast it should be harrowed in like clover 
seed. The seed should be covered about one-half to 
one inch deep, depending on the character of the soil 
and season. 
When grown for a cover crop, Hairy vetch should be 
sown alone, i. e., without nurse crop. When grown 
for feed it should be sown with rye or other available 
crop. If it is sown in the Spring it can be sown 
with oats to advantage. When sown with oats or rye, 
the vetch plants climb up the stalks of the oats or rye 
plants, thus holding the vetch off the ground. When 
sown alone, it spreads over the ground in a dense mat, 
making an ideal cover crop. 
It has been the experience of the writer that there 
is little use in sowing the seed of this crop unless the 
seed is inoculated, or the soil inoculated. Where it is 
sown for the first time in land where vetch has not been 
grown before, it is always safe to inoculate the seed. 
This fact must be kept in mind. Otherwise the grower 
is not likely to get a stand and the crop from the not 
inoculated seed will be disappointing. This last season 
EARLY CANADA FLINT. EXACT SIZE. Fro. 2.32. 
the writer had one field from inoculated seed, and an 
adjoining field from not inoculated seed for comparison. 
The yield from the inoculated seed was about four times 
that from the not inoculated seed. The writer in his 
experiments has secured cultures of vetch organisms 
from the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept, of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Some of the dealers 
in Vetch seed inoculate it before sending out to pur¬ 
chasers, but it is always safe to inoculate freshly. After 
a field has been grown to inoculated plants, the soil 
from this field can be used to inoculate other fields, 
sowing the inoculated soil broadcast like fertilizer, over 
the field to be inoculated, at the time of sowing. The 
writer would recommend the most careful attention of 
the vetch growers to this important detail. The vetch 
seed is about the size of a wheat kernel, but almost 
round and dark colored. This large seed is very 
fortunate, as it gives the young plants a good start, even 
under unfavorable conditions. In other words, it is 
comparatively easy to get a stand. In this respect it has 
a great advantage over clover, Alfalfa and'some other 
common legumes. A. d. shamel. 
U. S. Dept, of Agriculture. 
TRADE UNION MEN AS FARMERS. 
Is co-operative farming practical? In other words, say 25 
or 50 men (from one of the large trade unions of our me¬ 
tropolis) form themselves into an organization, rent a farm 
which would give each man about three acres of land, pro¬ 
vided he could take care of that amount and would work 
conscientiously, and at the end of the season for all to com¬ 
bine and ship the product of their labor to some commission 
merchant in the city. Is the scheme practical from a finan¬ 
cial standpoint? Consider that a few will be found among 
the number who have been “bread and buttered" on the 
farm in early life, while others have never seen a potato 
planted. There are certain labor unions in the big cities 
whose members experience a certain amount of hardship 
through idleness in Summer. It is in behalf of these that 
the above question is asked. w. J. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
In the Spring of 1900 a scheme was promoted and 
carried through whereby the unemployed or partly em¬ 
ployed members of our typographical union could try 
their luck at farming, so 50 names were enrolled without 
much persuasion, the writer being one of the number. 
A farm of nearly 300 acres was rented at Bound Brook, 
N. J.; six practical farmers with teams were hired to do 
the plowing, and an instructor engaged. There was a 
large house on this farm that easily accommodated 11 s 
all. Fifty tons of potato ferliliz.er and 25 tons of truck- 
fertilizer were bought; 600 bushels of fine Michigan seed 
potatoes were procured through a local dealer and about 
20 barrels of Early Rose. The land was measured, 
staked off and numbered in acre plots. Each man re¬ 
ceived two acres (some more), an acre for potatoes and 
another for truck; we divided the land in two sections, 
the potato fields in one section and the truck in the 
other. The numbers of plots were drawn for by both 
young and old—no discrimination whatever. That was 
the first grievous mistake we made, and perhaps the 
chief cause of our failure as farmers on the whole. 
Planting started about May 3, and some men did not 
get finished before June, although there was only one 
acre for each to plant; others completed the task the 
second day. We then started with the truck acre, and 
although the instructor tried his best to keep the plots 
uniform, it seemed that each man adopted his own idea 
of how a garden should be laid out, and planted ac¬ 
cordingly. 
About this time we commenced to realize that farm¬ 
ing was not child’s play—our backs and legs ached, and 
our hands and arms were sore. The instructor would 
smile as we showed each other the blisters on our 
hands, and the only consolation we got was: “They’ll 
be hard as nails in a short while.” “Don’t mind a 
little thing like that,” etc. Our live stock consisted of a 
cow and calf, three little pigs and some chickens. In 
most cases the fertilizer was used very liberally. Some 
could not bear the obnoxious smell, and what they did 
use was sprinkled at arm’s length with the aid of a 
shingle. We planted sweet corn, early and late, onions, 
cucumbers, radishes, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, about 
everything except eggplant, celery and ilowers. 
Again we turned our attention to the potatoes and 
were agreeably surprised to see their heads bursting 
through the earth. Hoeing began in earnest with the 
younger element, the older men striving hard to keep 
in the race. Our potato fields were a credit to us, and 
were complimented by experienced farmers time and 
again. But, lo! the eagle eye of Mr. Instructor dis¬ 
covered something that made us all very curious—it 
was the Potato bug’s eggs, and we were cautioned to 
examine each plant and nip off the leaf which con¬ 
tained any and destroy it. Some men could be seen at 
daybreak out in fields hunting them. Paris-green was 
procured, Slug-shot, and no expense was spared to 
keep the pest down. One old gentleman compared it 
with the plague of locusts in Egypt. As time went on 
our fields commenced to have a very uncertain and 
ragged appearance. We bought three horses and three 
cultivators, one spring-tooth harrow, and tried our best 
to encourage those who were getting discouraged to 
keep their plots clean, but to no avail. Dissatisfaction 
seemed to have taken possession of us all, and it was 
hard to convince the most enthusiastic of the group that 
they had not been “handed a lemon.” When you would 
find an ambitious man, you would find his neighbor the 
opposite, and the result was that the former had to deal 
with the latter’s bugs as well as his own. 
Negotiations with New York commission merchants 
were entered into, and the majority of the men agreed 
to ship everything to them. The first shipment con¬ 
sisted of string beans and tomatoes, each man contrib¬ 
uting three or four bushels of beans and from one to 
three crates of tomatoes. Day after day passed and 
no word from the commission merchant. We appointed 
two of the number to start for New York to inter¬ 
view him, but that was about all the good it did, as 
they were told the beans were wilted and the tomatoes 
so ripe they were all consigned to the “dump.” The 
commission merchant threw the blame on the railroad, 
as there was a strike on among the freight handlers 
about that time. We also sent one shipment of potatoes 
and received so little in case that it made us feel for 
