Vol. LXXIV. No. 4358. 
Hairy Vetch as a Green Manure Crop 
A Comparison With Manure 
IMPROVING SOIL CONDITIONS.—While the 
subject of cover crops is under discussion I will 
contribute a little experience with a green manure 
crop, including that plant which has furnished me 
material for considerable interesting study, and 
might he of interest to some of your readers. We 
have a 10-acre field about 120 rods from (lie barn, 
and as the others are all somewhat nearer this one 
in the natural course of events has received very 
little manure. Otherwise it has retained its place 
in the four-year rotation of hay, potatoes, beans 
and wheat, and received ihe same treatment as the 
the only shower we had all Summer. A few seeds 
of all varieties started and an occasioned plant lived. 
As soon however as we did get a little moisture in 
the Fall the crop came on slowly and unevenly and 
when it finally froze into Winter quarters there was 
some rye of all sizes from three inches to one foot 
high, some of the larger plants with a short shrunk¬ 
en head formed, occasionally a clover plant and a 
pretty good stand, I think a plant for every seed 
sown, of small, sickly, yellow vetch, some of the 
best plants with shoots perhaps three inches long. 
The neighbors didn’t say much, they are a pretty 
good-hearted bunch around here, and besides I 
have, unfortunately, a pretty quick temper. Well, 
that mess laid there all Winter, and in the Spring 
pulled up plant after plant and dug them up four 
or five inches deep with my fingers, but could find 
only an occasional nodule. I did not understand 
how the plants could be making such a growth with 
so few nodules on the roots, but this was explained 
later. 
TURNING IT UNDER.—The field was plowed May 
11-15, using a chain to get the stuff under. The rye 
was fairly thick, and from 12 to 18 inches high, with 
vetch all through it. The growth was somewhat un¬ 
even, but there was enough all over to be very sat¬ 
isfactory, and in places there was twice as much as 
(be bay we bad plowed under the year before. And 
best of all, right down in the bottom of the furrow, 
among the old rotting sod, was the prettiest nest 
A Kentucky Farm Scene: Power Enough on the Disk Harrow. Fig. 575 
other fields. As a result its fertility, or whatever 
name we give that mysterious property of a soil 
that makes plants grow, has gradually dwindled 
below that of the other fields. In 1913 this field 
(L) was in hay which made such a poor showing 
that in spite of the criticism of friends and neigh¬ 
bors I plowed it. under in .Tune with the Timothy 
just in head. By cutting it as low as possible we 
might have been able to get 10 tons of poor hay, 
mostly stunted Timothy, from the 10 acres. The 
ground was worked down to a good seed bed and 
after a lit lie shower the first week in July, which 
promised to start the seeds but failed to keep its 
promise, there was drilled on the field, one bushel 
Crimson clover, one-half bushel Mammoth Red clo¬ 
ver, 100 pounds Hairy vetch and five bushels rye. 
AN UNFAVORABLE START.—I guess that was 
1 went up one day when the ground was first be¬ 
ginning to soften up, and was surprised to see both 
the rye and vetch showing signs of life. There was 
practically no clover left. Closer examination 
showed anywhere from a dozen to almost countless 
new shoots coming out from the crown of the vetch 
plants. 
THE VETCH GREW.—My interest revived with 
the vetch, and I watched that field for the next 
few weeks as I would a sick child recovering from 
scarlet fever. I have traveled from Maine to Texas, 
and stopped off at several places en route, and be¬ 
sides have seen considerable Alfalfa growing, but I 
never saw anything grow as that vetch did. In one 
thing I was disappointed and somewhat surprised. 
No vetch had been grown on the place or anywhere 
near it before, and no inoculation was used. I 
of nodules I have ever seen on any plant. Very 
often a vetch root would be covered for a distance 
of four to six inches with nodules as large as a 
wheat kernel. They were so deep down that I had 
not got down to them in digging plants by hand. 
The picture, Fig. 577, show's one of the best plants 
on May 15 with branches 30 inches long. Un¬ 
fortunately only two groups of nodules large enough 
to show in the picture were preserved in digging 
the plant. There may be danger of vetch becoming 
a noxious weed if allowed to go to seed. As all 
the seed sown apparently sprouted the first season 
and none of the resulting crop was allowed to de¬ 
velop seeds we avoided that danger. But as a grow¬ 
er I have never seen anything to compare with it 
after it once gets a start. 
RESULTS FOLLOWING.—So much for the his- 
