386 
early as the beginning or middle of August,—on 
better soils or in more genial situations, in the lat- 
ter part of August or early part of September,— 
and on prime soils in the best situations, so late as 
some time in October. In every case, it should 
be done in sufficient time to let the plants be- 
come perfectly established in the soil before the 
commencement of winter weather ; and, in most 
cases, especially on well-conducted farms with a 
large amount of winter stock, it ought to be 
done at successive periods, through as long a 
range of time as possible, in order to provide a 
due succession of green food for spring consump- 
tion. The sowing of summer tares for purposes 
of seed must be done early, else the amount of 
produce will be deficient ; and for purposes of 
forage, should be done at intervals from February 
till the end of May,—and_ has, in some instances 
of rich soil and warm situation, been advanta- 
geously done at so advanced a period as the early 
part of June. The intervals of time between the 
sowings, and also the extent of ground sownat each 
sowing, should be greater in the latter part than 
in the early part of the succession. The broad- 
cast method, when carefully and evenly practised, 
is generally the best for forage; and the drill 
method is generally preferable for seed. No 
rolling of winter tares immediately after sowing 
| is allowable; but a good harrowing should be 
| given to cover the seeds from being picked up by 
birds; and, in spring, if the land and the weather 
be sufficiently dry, a light rolling may be given 
to the young crop destined for forage in order to 
smoothen the ground for the scythe; and when 
this cannot be done, the crop will generally re- 
quire to be cut with the sickle. A close heavy 
rolling, immediately after sowing, is commonly 
suitable for spring tares and other spring-sown 
| vetches, and puts the ground into a fine state 
for the action of the scythe. 
| A mixture of some other plants with vetches 
is desirable or even requisite to prevent them 
from lying on the ground, and from becoming 
injured by rains; and, in the case of annual crops 
grown for forage, serves the additional purpose 
of making the produce both more abundant and 
more agreeable. The most suitable intermixing 
plants are rye for forage winter tares, oats for 
summer forage tares and for other spring-sown 
annual forage vetches, melilot for the biennial 
vetch, pease or beans for summer tares and other 
annual vetches intended to seed, and beans for 
winter tares intended to seed and for all the pe- 
rennial vetches whether intended to seed or to 
be cut green. Wheat might do as well as rye 
‘for the mere supporting of forage winter tares, 
but is not so well relished by cattle and sheep in 
its green state as rye, and does not yield such a 
profusion of early spring feed as any of the prime 
forage varieties of rye. Barley, on the other 
hand, might do as well as oats, in the case of 
summer tares, for the purposes of fodder, but 
does not afford so good support to the vetch plants 
VETCH. 
by the strength of its culms. Beans greatly im- 
prove the quality of vetches, particularly with 
reference to their seeds, by keeping them well 
up from the ground, and exposing them fully to 
the circulation of the air and the play of the 
sunshine,—and they also facilitate the process 
of harvesting them; and though their seeds ne- 
cessarily become mixed with those of the vetches, 
they are so very different from them in size as 
to be easily separated in the course of winnowing 
and riddling. New sowings of beans every year, 
of course, are requisite for intermixture with the 
perennial vetches; and, either in the broadcast 
method or with narrow drill intervals, in conse- 
quence of the soil becoming hard and exhausted, 
the beans will not possess due vigour beyond the 
second or third year, but will afterwards be 
dwarfish and feeble; and, in the case at least of 
the wood vetch, this evil might be partly reme- 
died, by making the drills two feet apart, and 
working and manuring the intervals for the re- 
ception of the beans every year. 
The quantity of vetches proper to be sown de- 
pends on the kind of the vetch, the character 
and condition of the soil, the destination of the 
crop, and the kind and degree of intermixture of 
other plants. The proper quantity of either win- 
ter tares or summer tares, sown alone, in me- 
dium or ordinary circumstances of soil and situa- 
tion, may be from 3 to 4 bushels if the crop be 
intended for forage, and about 24 if the crop be 
intended to ripen its seeds; and the proper quan- 
tity of intermixture in average or ordinary cir- 
cumstances for forage crops, is from 2 to 23 
bushels of winter tares and 15 bushel of rye, and 
from 14 to 24 bushels of summer tares and 1 
bushel of Hopetoun or potato oats. If the quan- 
tity sown be too small, the crop may be thin and 
deficient ; and if the quantity sown be too large, 
the crop may be so crowded in the roots and so 
feeble in the stems as easily to rot off in wet 
weather. 
The after-culture of vetches which have been 
sown broadcast consists merely in pulling out 
the larger weeds, and should be done at an early 
stage of the crop’s growth; and that of such as 
have been sown in drills, particularly when they 
are intended to ripen their seeds, consists in the 
thoroughly cleaning and aerating use of the hand- 
hoe and the horse-hoe. But, in general, vetches 
grow so very densely and exert of themselves 
so smothering an action upon weeds, that they 
require much less after-culture than most other 
kinds of green crop. The cutting of forage 
vetches may be done after the pods have begun 
to form, but long before the seeds approach to 
ripeness or even before they are properly form- 
ed; or if the cutting take place at an earlier 
stage of the growth, a second crop will be pro- 
duced. But in the proportion in which the crop 
is in an advanced stage at the time of being cut, 
it impoverishes rather than ameliorates the soil 
for the cereal crop that is to follow; and to allow 
———— 
