The Huttig news., 1907-11-02
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE
SOW HAIRY VETCH NOW.
Prof. Duggar Gives Directions How to
 Succeed With Crop.

soil improvement. It is an annual plant, ~>~ ing up from seed early each fall. 1ch plant has numerous vine-li' ,ms usually three to five feet l.
 The l1nes are too slender and weak to stand alone, so that when intended for hay vetch should be sown with oats or wheat. Sow broadcast per acre 20 to 40 pounds of vetch seed or beardless wheat.
 Sow vetch and any grain that is to be sown with it broadcast up to October 30th. It is best to blow and harrow the land before sowing the seed. Cover seed of vetch and grain two to three inches deep.
 Vetch thrives on a great variety of sandy, clayey and lime soils, in cluding the poorest, which it greatly enriches. Land for vetch need not be free from weeds and trash. Seed can be sown among the growing cot ton plants without breaking the land. Two to four hundred pounds of acid phosphate or guano per acre is usual ly advisable. If the soil is very acid, six to eight barrels of lime per acre, first slacked, will be useful.
 1. Vetch serves the same uses and makes about the same yield of hay and the same improvement in the land as crimson clover.
 ?. Hairy vetch is hardier, being less apt to be killed by very dry weather as soon as 1t germinates, or by cold in winter
 3. Hairy vetch requires more seed Cat least 40 pounds per acre for perfect stand alone), and greater ex pense for thick seeding.
 f. Hairy vetch, unlike crimson clover, can be made to re-seed the land, making it possible to begin with only a few pounds of seed per acre and at slight cost.
 l. Hay of a mixture of hairy vetch and beardless wheat can be cut just as the vetch begins to bloom in April After this early cutting there will be sufficient growth of vetch to re-seed the land.
 ?. Or a mixture of red rustproof oats and hairy vetch can be cut for hay May 1st to May 18th, leaving long stubble, with little chance for the vetch to re-seed the land.
 g. Or mixture of turf oats and vetch can be cut for grain (ripe oats and vetch seed), June 5th to goth, by which time enough ripe vetch seed will have scattered to re- seed the land.
 4. Or mixture of hairy vetch and red rust-proof oats can be cut for grain when overripe. and par tially sheltered early in June, thus re-seeding the land.
 Vetch seed falling on the ground in May or June remain sound and comes up in August or September without any need to blow the land. Meantime a summer crop of drilled or broadcast cowpeas, sorghum, late corn, etc, can be grown.
 If vetch is grazed, the stock should be removed by April 20th to permit re-seeding. All summer crops grown after a good stand of vetch are well fertiliZed by the nitrogen in the vetch vines and stubble. The vetch plant and vetch stubble are about as val uable as fertilizer as are the cowpea plant and cowpea stubble.
 Vetch affords exceedingly nutri- tious grazing, and hay that has proved equal pound for pound to wheat bran and little better than cowpea hay.
 Seed of hairy vetch usually cost 6 to 10 cents per pound, and are for sale by all seedsmen.
 An inexpensive start with vetch grown the first year solely for re- seeding can be made as follows:
 1. On every terrace in cotton and corn fields, plant vetch seed in hills about three feet apart; when the pods ripen in May they burst and throw the seed for several yards on each side of the terrace.
 2. Or, after sowing oats, wheat or rye, as usual, drop several vetch seeds in hills three feet apart; per init vetch to ripen seed as directed
 This consists in adding certain germs which cause enlargements (nodules) to form on the roots of vetch plants. These nodules serve as fertilizer factories, changing the useless nitrogen of the air into a form of nitrogen worth at least 15 cents per pound as fertilizer. Much the surest way to inoculate vetch is to SOW with the seed as much soil as possible from a field where re- gently either any kind of vetch or garden peas (English peas, not cow peas) grew thriftily. Avoid seed from gardens where there are seri- ous diseases of plants, nutgrass, etc.
 Mix a little water from soil from this spot. Then moisten the seed in this dirty water. Now mix the wet seed with some of the same soil in dry, powdered condition. If the in- oculating soil is abundant, SOW broadcast, in addition, from a few Hundred pounds to one ton of it per acre. Otherwise omit this latter step.