VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS. AUGUST 13, 1910.
NO. 33
THE HAIRY VETCH
GROWN AT THE INDIANA EXPKRI-
MENT  STATION.—EXPERIENCE
AND  ADVICE  IN   CULTIVA-
TION.
By Prof. M. L. .Fisher.
Many inquiries concerning hairy or
sand vetch have come to the station
within the last few weeks. The Indiana Experiment Station has grown
vetch for several years in an experimental way. Perhaps a few statements
concerning the success of the station
with this crop may be of value.
Hairy vetch is an annual legume.
The stems are weak and do not support
the plant. The leaves are compound,
having six to ten leaflets and are terminated by little tendrils which attach
themselves to whatever they can find
for support. The plant, will grow as
much as 8 or 10 feet in length where
it has escaped from cultivation and has
favorable conditions. Ordinarily it
does not exceed three or four feet and
is usually shorter. The blossoms are
a beautiful purple, gathered in clusters
which resemble in form the clusters of
Uie blacK locust. The seeds are black,
about the size of small garden peas and
are borne in pods. The plant will have
flowers and ripe seeds at the same
time.
How Vetch Should be Sown.
In experiments conducted at the station, vetch has been sown about the
first of September at the rate of one
bushel (60 pounds) of seed per acre. It
is usually sown with rye in order to
give it support, usually about 1V. bushel of rye per acre. Vetch may also be
Sown in corn at the last cultivation or
later. The plants do not make much
growth during the autumn. The winters seem to be hard on them so that
many are winter killed and those remaining start rather slowly in the
spring. However, when it once begins
to grow, it grows very rapidly and by
May lst will have a growth of 18 inches
or more. "Where sown with rye, the
mixture does not grow well together as
the rye starts growing earlier and
grows more rapidly. In the mixture
of rye and vetch, the growth of the
vetch Is rather uncertain. In some
spots of the rye the vetch will have a
very good growth while in other spots
it seems to be at a standstill and doing
no good. In different experiments the
porportion of vetch to rye of green
weight cut about May lst, has been
about 25 to 30 per cent. The green
weight of rye and vetch per acre will
run about 6 tons, equivalent in dry hay
to about 2% tons.
Good for Feed and Soil Improver.
Rye and vetch mixture are highly
recommended for green feed for dairy
cattle. It is believed by the writer
that wheat and vetch will be a better
combination for this state since wheat
makes a slower growth than rye and
the vetch and wheat come along more
nearly together. Vetch is also recommended for turning under as a soil improver. A mixture of rye and vetch
might also be used in the same way.
Vetch roots are well supplied with
nodules, indicating that the plant is an
active  gatherer  of  nitrogen   from   the
atmosphere. Where sown alone for
turning under, the seeding ought to be
heavy so as to make allowance for
plants being winter killed, in order to
have a good stand of plants left for
growing  in   the   spring. The   writer
prefers to recommend the use of clovers, cow peas and soy beans as soil improvers  rather  than vetch.      However,
to the pound. Of western yellow pine,
the tree most extensively planted, 10,-
000 seed will make a pound. Altogether the ten tons of seed to be used
this year represent perhaps 300 million
single seeds.
If every seed could be depended on
to produce a young tree suitable for
planting, the result would be a supply
Vetch and Rye fleld at the Indiana Experiment Station, Purdue University. The Vetch is 3 feet and the Rye 5 feet high. This field made 2.8 tons dry
hay per  acre,  about  25  per  cent being  vetch.
if vetch would succeed, it has the advantage over these plants in that it ls
sown in the autumn and makes growth
enough in the spring to be of value
when turned under early. Cow peas
and soy beans cannot be sown until the
season is well advanced in the spring.
In this way they occupy the entire season. They may however, be sown after
wheat or in corn and make sufficient
growth to be of value.
In the sowing of vetch it should be
remembered that there is some danger
of the plant escaping from cultivation
and becoming a weed. "Where the
vetch comes up in wheat the seed is
sure to be mixed with the wheat at
threshing time and cause a dockage at
the elevator. Vetch cannot be easily
separated from wheat.
Vetch seed is rather costly. Seedsmen advertise it at about $4.50 per
bushel or $7 per hundred pounds. The
writer does not feel like highly recommending vetch for general use by farmers. M.   Li.  Fisher.
Indiana Experiment Sta., Lafayette.
TEN TONS OF SEED
BY THE  DEPARTMENT     OF  AGRICULTURE    FOR    RESTOCKING NATIONAL FORESTS.
The U. S. Department of Agriculture
is using this year on the National Forests over ten tons of tree seed. Most
of this seed has already been planted
or sown. The rest will be utilized later
in the season, as favorable conditions
are presented.
It takes a great many tree seeds to
make ten tons. Jack pine, the most
important tree for planting in the Nebraska sand  hills will average  125,000
of nursery stock sufficient to plant
three hundred thousand acres of land,
but no such result can be looked for
because many seeds do not germinate.
Most of the seeds will be sown, directly in the place where the trees are to
stand.
Even when nursery stock is raised
a liberal allowance must be made for
loss. In the flrst place, a considerable
percentage of the seeds will be found
to be Infertile. Of those which germinate, many will die before they leave
the nursery beds, and many more will
be lost in transplanting. If from a
pound of "Western yellow pine seed that
contains 10,000 individual seeds, 4,000
three-year-old transplants are available for planting* the Department of
Agriculture has obtained satisfactory
results.
There are now twenty-four National
Forest nurseries with an unusual productive capacity of over eight million
seedlings. But there are many millions
of old burns on the National Forests
which are waiting to be restocked, and
some quicker and cheaper method than
the actual planting of nursery-grown
trees is urgently needed. Therefore the
foresters are making experiments on a
large scale with different methods of
direct sowing and planting, and most
of the seed gathered last year was obtained for this use.
Broadcasting has already been found
to give good results in some regions. It
was flrst tried in the Black Hills of
South Dakota, with an encouraging
outcome. To broadcast an acre of land
with yellow pine seed about eight
pounds of seed is used. One of the
most formidable drawbacks to this
method is the extent to which the seed
may be consumed by birds and rodents.
If the season happens to be one in
which food for these animals is scarce,
the loss is very heavy. The problem
of control of animal pests, such as fleld
mice, ground squirrels and gophers,
which eat the tree seeds, and also the
further problem of preventing the depredations of rabbits, which are altogether too fond of the little trees themselves, whether nursery transplants or
field-grown seedlings, is receiving the
attention of the Biological Survey experts of the Department of Agriculture.
In some localities the Department
has had to purchase seed, but most of
that used is gathered by Forest Service mea themselves. The cost of
gathering has varied for the different
regions from thirty-five cents to one
dollar a pound. As a rule the seed is
collected in the fall months, when most
conifers ripen their seed. Parties of
three or four men ordinarily work together. "Where lumbering is in progress the collectors follow the sawyers
and take the cones directly from the
felled trees. In standing timber, the
task is much more arduous. The men
must often climb tall pines and pull the
cones from the branches as best they
can. "Where these are on the extremities and beyond the reach of the hand,
pruning shears are used. The cones
are dropped to the ground and then
gathered into buckets and transferred
to sacks, in which they are carried to a
central point for further treatment.
The extraction of the seeds is tedious
rather than difficult. In some cases
the cones are spread out upon sheets in
the sun, when, after a time, they open
and the seed drop out; in other cases
it is necessary to resort to artificial
heat. This is applied by placing the
cones upon trays with screen bottoms
and raising the temperature of the
room to the proper degree. The cones
open, the winged seeds fall out, and
the seed is separated finally from the
wings and dirt by a fanning mill. A
good many seeds have been removed
from the cone by hand, but this is a
sore trial to the fingers of the pickers
and an exceedingly slow process.
THE DESIRE FOR LAND.
There never has been seen such a desire as now exists on the part of thousands of landless peop' • to obtain land.
Two chief things impel to this desire,
and these are the desire for an investment of savings for a rainy day, and
the fact that all perceive now that good
land must go on advancing rapidly.
The products of an acre now in almost anything has been more than
doubled in the last ten years, perhaps
wheat should be excepted, but we have
gone on from 50 cents to more than
$1.00 per bushel for wheat in the last
fifteen years, and so it is of every other
product of the soil.
People perceive now that in the complex conditions of life and the advancement to higher things in every industry that prices will advance rather than
recede in the next ten or twenty years,
anj so hundreds of people seem to
have instinctively turned to the soil for
provision against  the  future.
These things are the chief motives
for the wonderful desire now to obtain
land. This has been accelerated by the
return of some thousands of people to
this country from Canada, who have
turned their eyes to the southwest for a
warmer climate.