VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, NOV. 12, 1910.
NO. 46
Written  for  the   Indiana  Farmer
SAND  VETCH AS  A  SOIL BUILDER.
By J. H. Haynes.
Astonishing results from experimenting with sand vetch for restoring
fertility to worn out land have been
demonstrated in this vicinity in the
last four years. Some three miles
from town on the Wabash river is a
farm that merited the name "starvation farm," so run down were its producing  powers.
Originally this farm was covered
with forests of oak, poplar, walnut,
etc., and after these were removed the
land was very productive for some
years.
The soil is about equally divided into rich bottom land, yellow sandy
knolls and level clay loam. The bottom land was very productive. The
clay loam fairly so, but the sandy
knolls produced but little, and in dry
years   nothing.
The writer has been over this farm
and is familiar with its failures of
crops in the past.
For 50 years it was farmed on the
soil robbery system of selling the products and binning the corn stalks. The
maximum yield on the bottom land
was 40 bushels, on the other soils not
over 20 bushels of corn. The best yields
of wheat or oats never exceeded 10
luishels per acre. It changed owners
much like the boy gets rid of a worthless knife, that is by a "sight unseen"
process.
Men would buy it presumably because it was offered cheap. When
they examined their purchase they
found that it was really dear, and hastened to get even by selling at first
chance.
Mr. W. C. Smith, president of the
Canning Co., bought this farm in 1906,
for the purpose of growing early truck
for the factory thinking that on account of its sandy nature it might
prove valuable, as such stuff is grown
in the main before drouths can affect
the crops. Sweet corn, peas, beets for
very early and tomatoes and potatoes
for later crops.
People in general thought that he
had bought a "gold brick," but events
have disproved  that.
In the spring of 1906 he planted the
sandy land in early peas; the season
was so very dry that the crop only
realized $10 per acre barely covering
cost of seed. When the peas were off,
about the 25th of June, he planted
the fields in sweet corn, using commercial fertilizers to aid, but no good
results came of this and his corn only
brought him $15 per acre, another loss.
Fortunately he planted the black land
in late peas, and that saved him from
financial loss that year, bringing $75
per acre.
We rather infer that Mr. Smith was,
to use a slang phrase, "up a stump" as
to knowing what to do. In some way
he got a bulletin from the TJ. S. Dept.
of Agriculture on the growing and
value of sand vetch. The word "sand"
attracted his attention because he had
a sand farm. The bulletin valued one
acre of vetch plowed under for fertilizing purposes as worth from $20 to $40
expended in commercial fertilizers.
This news encouraged him to the point
that he ordered from his seedsman two
bushels of vetch seed, enough to sow-
two acres.    This was sown in August,
1906, on a tract of the poorest sand
land on the farm. I3y winter a heavy
coat of green vetch covered the ground.
It came through the winter all right,
and by May the stems were four feet
in length.      In June it was cut for hay.
He was so well impressed with its
value that in the succeeding August
he sowed 21 acres of his poorest sand,
intending to follow it in 1908 with
corn, and four acres of black land for
pasture and hay. It made rapid growth
that fall. The winter was severe but
the vetch came out in fine condition.
The spring was wet and late, so that
the. yield was 150 bushels. On neighboring lands where crimson clover had
been used the highest yield was 75
bushels per acre.
On another^ farm of clay soil with
gravelly soil, owned by Mr. Smith's
brother, the vetch has proven equally
as effective. This farm had been for
50 years a tenant farm and its fertility
reduced to the starvation point.
On a 50 acre tract vetch was sown and
plowed under and planted in field corn.
The yield was double that of any previous year. On this same farm a test
was made of using vetch as a nitrogen
Vetch   Plants.
by plowing time the coat of green
vetch was so heavy as almost to defy
an effort to turn it under, much of it
being five feet long. The work was
so tedious that it was not finished till
the last of May. On June 3d and 4th
he planted the corn.
It came up nicely, but the usual
drouth set in for a six week's duration.
The corn drew slowly for a while but
finally new life was infused into the
young plant and, as if by magic, it
grew rapidly, holding a dark greon
color, while adjoining fields across the
road were fired and dried up. Everybody passing along the public highway was surprised at the striking contrast between fields, and would stop
and inquire of Smith what he had done
for that field. These people had been
for years accustomed to see corn three
and four feet high on this field, while
it was then eight to ten feet high.
The six weeks of hot dry weather did
not phase it, and at gathering time it
yielded 72 bushels per acre, and that
on land that had not in 20 years given
over 20 bushels to the acre.
In August, 1908, he sowed 30 acres
which as usual grew rapidly. The next
spring, 1909, 10 acres xvere planted in
corn. Eight acres in potatoes and 12
acres in sxveet corn for the cannery.
The result xvas that the field corn
yielded 90 bushels per acre where formerly the crops xvere from 0 to 40
bushels per acre.
The 12 acres sweet corn produced 4%
tons to the acre and on one-and txvo-
fifths acres of the potato ground 450
bushels of potatoes were dug, and on
the poorer portions of this potato land
fertilizer for alfalfa. Ten acres were
planted in August, 1908. This fleld
had been cropped for 60 years and xvas
in a poor condition. The vetch was
ploxved under in May, 1909. The
ground was kept free from weeds by
frequent stirring until the middle of
June, and 20 pounds of alfalfa seed to
the acre was sown. In fixe xveeks it
xvas clipped and is noxv a flne field of
alfalfa.
Mr. Smith has 14 acres on his place
procured the same way; his is on very
sandy land.
A visit to his place will amply repay
any one. His fine fields of corn, fall
vetch and alfalfa fields are a study
xvorth taking up. Another year many
tests will be made along these lines.
We started out by saying "astonishing results." We close by changing
the word to "wonderful" results on
these exhausted soils. They clearly
demonstrate that vetch is the great nitrogen and humus plant to reinvigorate
our lands. The cost of seed is moro
than for other kinds but the advan
tages it has over them for enriching
makes it far the cheapest. Three to
four dollars xvill seed an acre, and in
two years it wHl return cost of seed
many times. When once started, Mr.
Smith says it can be made to reseed
itself easily. Fifty pounds are required to sow an acre.
In sowing in corn a one-horse drill is
used regulating the feed accordingly.
Rye has many advocates, many hundreds of acres are sown, but if vetch
will double the yields gix'en by rye It
xvill soon become the one used for enriching the soil.
SOME  MISTAKES  OF  FARMERS  IN
CENTRAL INDIANA.
Editors Indiana Parmer:
They do not farm from the standpoint that the soil is a living thing. It
is treated mechanically as though it
could be thumped around and robbed
and still made to yield well. Compare a natural, virgin soil with the average soil of today. The virgin soil
after some of its wildness is worked out
is about ideal for plant growth.
If we had a normal amount of
humus in the soil it would not run together and bake if worked down fine
and drenched with rain.
Many are now afraid to make a decent bed lest it get hard. They leave
it open and even cloddy. Some springs
xve have only light rains and such a
bed does not get closed down as much
as it should.
Terry said to run a spade to the bottom of the bed when you think it good
enough and take up a fill of dirt and
throw it around you. If you can't find
it by the clods or bunches of trash in
it you may have the bed worked doxvn
pretty well. If it breaks into "ashes"
in plowing it may still need firming.
Nature's seed bed is much closer than
xve commonly make ours unless ours
is puddled; then i£ gets hard, which is
not true of the virgin bed.
The humus is worked ox'er by bacteria. They cannot live without humus
to  feed    upon. Without    them  the
humus does not become plant food.
With them a mild acid is formed which
slowly dissolves the mineral food as
the plant uses it. So without bacteria
there is neither kind of plant food. For
these friends to flourish they should
have humus, warmth and moisture.
They are dormant in a dry clod. So
summer breaking is losing time if it i.s
left high and lumpy so it dries out. It
should be worked down enough to hold
moisture at once.
Many farmers in central Indiana feel
the importance of feeding the soil but
do not realize hoxv easily a crop is reduced by even one year's starving and
robbing the soil. A friend had his
clox-er killed on a twenty acre field,
three years ago. So he was compelled
to break his rotation and repeat it in
corn, without a crop of clover to turn
under. He said, to shoxv the difference,
one could note that the first corn crop
after clox'er made 65 bushels while this
crop made 45. He felt sure that he
had too much exhausted the humus by
his second crop of corn without feeding the land with clover. Many farmers fail to notice such things. They
are silent voices which we should read
with care. The field said "I did my
best, but you had robbed me of my dinner and I did not have the strength to
grow a full crop."
Some farmers' fields say, "you robbed
me and tramped me in the mud and
broke me xvet, and after such a bungle
it was impossible for me to grow a profitable crop." E. H. Collins.
 . m »	
Wash and dry the plums, and prick
each with a fork in two or three places.
Weigh the fruit and for every three
pounds allow three cupfuls of sugar,
one cupful of vinegar, and one tablespoonful of mixed spices. Put the
spices into a cheesecloth bag, and bring
it, the sugar and xinegar, to a boil.
Then turn in the plums and cook until
they are tender. Put the plums In jara
and turn syrup over them.