VETCH. 
purple flowers in June and July, and introduced 
from India in 1792; the intermediate vetch, V. 
intermedia, an annual of commonly about 3 feet 
in height, carrying subsessile purple flowers in 
June and July, and introduced from the South 
of Europe in 1818; the two-coloured vetch, V. 
bicolor, an annual of commonly about two feet in 
height, carrying subsessile white and purple 
flowers from June till August, and introduced 
in 1820; and the Hungarian vetch, V. pannonica, 
an annual of commonly about 20 inches in height, 
carrying subsessile white flowers in June and 
July, and introduced from Hungary in 1658. 
Most of the annual vetches suitable for field 
crops are well adapted to cultivation in the in- 
termediate year between different sorts of grain 
crops, for the double purpose of ameliorating 
the land and affording a supply of fodder. It 
has even been contended that vetches may be 
made the means of enabling the arable farmer to 
support as much live stock as the grazier,—that, 
while they remain on the ground, they yield a 
larger bulk of the best kind of green food per 
acre than the richest and most productive grass 
lands,—that they may be taken from the ground 
at so early a period in the summer as, on the 
friable loamy soils, to admit of a clean crop of 
turnips being obtained from the same land in the 
same year, and of those of the more heavy kinds 
being sown with wheat,—that while they are 
capable of being raised with success on most 
kinds of soils and situations, they support and 
fatten cattle and sheep of different sizes and 
breeds in an expeditious manner,—that, in ad- 
dition to all this, they afford a good preparation 
for other sorts of green crops, and in that way 
keep up the successions of such kinds of food for 
the fattening of additional quantities of animals, 
and, in consequence, produce abundance of ma- 
nure in situations where it could not otherwise 
be procured,—and that, in short, by a judicious 
combination of vetches with turnips, clover, and 
sainfoin, the poor downs, sheep-walks, and other 
waste lands, may be rendered from ten to thirty 
times more valuable than they are at present. 
Now though these observations may be unduly 
sanguine, yet we cannot doubt that the vetch 
may be beneficially cultivated both for improving 
the land, and for supporting a larger stock, and 
that it ought to.be more generally grown in 
most situations, in proportion to the extent of 
the stock that is kept. When, however, it is 
grown for the sake of its seed, or when it is al- 
lowed to stand till it approaches ripeness, it is 
one of the most impoverishing of all our com- 
monly cultivated leguminous crops. 
Most kinds of soils in ordinary cultivation are 
more or less suitable for vetches. Gravelly loams 
of medium dryness are the most generally suit- 
able; and all other loamy sorts, from kinds bor- 
dering on thin gravel to kinds bordering on stiff 
clay, willdo. ‘The richer any soil is, provided it 
be not rankly fertile, the better it is for any 
985 
vetch crop which is to be cut down in a green 
state; but a soil of an inferior description is re- 
quisite for the seed produce of a vetch crop, as a 
rich soil sends the herbage of the plant into such 
excessive luxuriance as to occasion a deficiency 
in the yield of seed. 
The preparation of the land for vetches is done 
by most farmers in as slim and niggard a fashion 
as if it were almost wholly superfluous; and cer- 
tainly less preparation is really necessary in this 
case than in that of most other farm crops. Yet 
if a good or especially a very large amount of 
produce be desired, the soil must be intrinsically 
rich, and must be well cleaned from both annual 
and perennial weeds, and must be reduced toa 
somewhat fine state of pulverization, and, in some 
cases, must receive a tolerably liberal supply of 
manure. The quality of the preparation, in fact, 
very mainly determines the quantity of the pro- 
duce. Stubble land intended for winter tares 
ought to be ploughed immediately after the har- 
vesting of the corn crop, and then pulverized by 
harrowing, and then ridged up before the sowing 
of the seed; and, though it may do well enough 
without manure if it be avery rich loam or a 
rich kindly clay in good condition, yet it ought 
by all means to be manured either if it be natu- 
rally a poor soil, or if it be a rich one in an ex- 
hausted state ; and should the farmer be so stingy 
or so hard-pressed as to give it only one plough- 
ing, the manure should be applied on the stubble, 
—and in the case of sufficient preparation, it 
should be applied in the second ploughing, at 
the ridging up of the land. The preparation for 
spring tares or any other spring-sown vetches 
should closely resemble that for broadcast pease 
or for any similar spring-sown green crop; and 
ought to comprise as much working and cleaning 
and manuring as a due regard to the aggregate 
circumstances of the farm will permit. The first 
ploughing should be given in autumn; and at 
least a second ploughing, together with harrow- 
ing, rolling, and weeding, ought in due course 
to follow. Manure is requisite on all light and 
exhausted soils; and should be applied either in 
a rough and fresh state in autumn, or in a short 
and well-rotted state before the seed-furrow,— 
the former method, of course, being the most 
economical. When the niggard practice of only 
one ploughing is persisted in, the ploughing 
should not be given till after the commencement 
of winter. 
The time of sowing depends on the kind of the 
vetch, the nature of the soil and situation, and 
the intended use of the crop.—The sowing of the 
indigenous perennial vetches, in all lands and 
situations analogous to those of their wild con- 
dition, ought to be done as soon as their seeds 
are ripe, or previous to the advanced stage of 
autumn ; but, on richer lands or in more genial 
situations, may be deferred till spring. The 
sowing of winter tares for purposes of forage, on 
poor soils in late exposed situations, may be as 
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