10 
BULLETIN 68. 
Hairy Vetch meets this demand admirably. It will 
make growth in this valley during all but the severest part 
of the winter. It makes its poorest showing during the heat 
of summer. For this reason it is preferable to sow in late 
summer or fall. 
The station has secured good results from sowing as 
late as October first. 
In one instance the seed lay in the soil over winter and 
germinated with the first approach of spring; the plants pro¬ 
duced seed in July, but of course the results are not so good 
as where the plants become well established before winter. 
The Hairy Vetch will thrive on the lightest kind of 
sandy soils and where sown in the fall, will keep such lands 
from blowing during the spring months, afterwards adding 
a vast amount of humus, and fertility to them. The roots 
are bountifully supplied with tubercles. If this plant is sown 
in early September it will produce a considerable growth to 
plow under in April or May, or if allowed to ripen will do so 
in early July. It will bloom, about the middle of May and 
from that time on until it ripens is a vast profusion of 
bloom. Bees frequent it in great numbers, seeming to do 
so to the exclusion of most other plants. Early fall sowing 
makes splendid pasture during April and May, and if the 
plant is started in the summer it will furnish pasture in Feb¬ 
ruary or March. 
Six-sevenths of an acre was sown to this seed, August 11, 
1899. By May 12, 1900, it stood two feet high and com¬ 
menced to bloom. The seed was ripe the first week in July, 
at which time it was cut. 
The yield of straw was 3000 pounds, which yielded 400 
pounds of seed. July 26, the same land was prepared by a 
disc harrow and watered, and from the seed that scattered 
off, a good stand of the vetch was secured, which was allow¬ 
ed to grow until April 1901, when it was plowed under and 
the land seeded to beets. 
Two acres near by were given a dressing of ten loads of 
sheep manure per acre and one acre was left without man¬ 
ure as a check. 
The tops of the beets on the vetch land grew rank and 
thrifty, having the dark healthy green and much of the ap¬ 
pearance of beets on alfalfa land. 
The results show a heavier yield than was obtained 
from the use of manure and as much as 50 per cent, increase 
over the land not fertilized. 
Trials in 1901 show further, that the vetch may be sown 
with oats and be cut with them for hay in July, after which 
it will produce seed. 
