The book of vetch

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Introduction

In a fall month in the early forties of the nineteenth century, a sturdy young farmer with his ox team and oldfashioned Pennsylvania covered wagon containing his young wife, two children and a few household effects, drove into the thick woods of that portion of the Indian Reserve afterwards known as Howard County, Indiana, staked his claim and began the pioneer task of clearing a farm and building a home. Time progressed, the clearing grew in size, the log house and barn were replaced with more pretentious frame buildings, and the family circle had grown to ten in number, the youngest being the author of these lines.

In the early part of the first year of the war of the rebellion, this pioneer and his family moved from the farm he had carved out of the wilderness of the great forests of that region, to another farm "nearer town," and the old pioneer home became a tenant farm and for forty-five long years was handled by the "whip and spur" method of farming. Its once fertile acres were so wasted of their fertility, that when in the year 1905 the old pioneer farmer passed into his last sleep and the farm went into the possession of the author and his brother, it was a typical worn-out farm, producing corn at the rate of fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre.

To the author it seemed a disheartening task to retain and undertake the rebuilding of this worn-out farm, although it was his birthplace and the tender memories of father, mother, brothers and sisters were woven in its every fiber. So when his brother offered to buy his interest he eagerly grasped the opportunity and sold it at a cheap figure, arguing to himself that he could take the money and buy a better farm nearer to his home.

Thus the old home farm passed from his possession, and he set about to invest the money received from it in another farm.

While the author had been near the soil all his life and had farmed a great deal, yet he never had really been "up against" the worn-soil problem until he inherited a portion of the old worn-out home farm, and even then he had not been really initiated, for he had sold his interest in the home farm before he had grown a crop of his own upon it, so that when he cast about to buy another farm, he was not experienced in the worn soil problem. In the purchase of a farm he considered location and cheapness, giving worn soil but very little consideration, so without inquiry he purchased in 1906, at a cheap price, a farm two miles from his home town, nicely located with reference to markets, good roads, etc.

As soon as it became known that the author had purchased this farm, people who were best acquainted with it wondered what possessed the author to buy such a farm. It was freely said that it could not be understood how a man who had been successful in professional life, manufacturing, and who was well posted on farming, would buy a farm which was so well known to be one of the poorest and most unproductive in the county.

Before the first season's crops were all harvested the author realized that there was foundation for such talk, and that he was really and truly up against the worn-out soil problem, and he was ready to turn over to an abler man the job of building up the worn-out soil of his newly purchased farm. He was really discouraged and sick at heart. But the fighting blood of revolutionary ancestry flowing in his veins must have asserted itself and put fighting vigor into him, for he cast aside his discouragement and heart sickness and said to himself, "I will conquer this worn soil and show these people what can be done with a worn-out farm."

But how was he to do it? And in considering how he should conquer he learned that necessity is the best teacher, that she teaches us lessons of the greatest value.

Realizing that something must be done to save his farm from the doom of the abandoned farm, he was driven to sit at Necessity's feet and learn her lessons on the building up of worn-out soils. He entered into the study of the worn-soil problem with an interest intense and absorbing. He learned the old lesson that there are two classes of plants. The one that feeds the soil, the other that feeds upon and consumes the elements of soil fertility, and that the latter class furnishes the most food for man and beast, and hence are the plants chiefly grown by the husbandman.

He also learned the lesson that the chief need of worn-out soils was drainage, nitrogen and organic matter.

The problem of drainage was a simple one, but the alchemic art of transmuting worn-out soil into "pay dirt" and at the same time make it produce paying crops, became with the author the problem of the hour.

In solving this problem he reasoned that nitrogen, the element soonest farmed out of the soil, is mostly found in vegetable or organic matter and in the air abore the soil; that when worn soil is abandoned, nature restores it to health and vigor by growing upon it those weeds, grasses, plants and trees that furnish large quantities of organic matter, and that have the power of drawing nitrogen from the air ; that it was impossible to obtain sufficient quantities of barnyard manure to restore his soil, and that practical experiments had demonstrated that commercial fertilizers alone would not restore soils.

So the conclusion was reached that the remedy was the use of some plant that would grow and mature itself between crops, whose root and branch system would produce a large quantity of vegetable or organic matter and which had the power to grow a large number of root nodules, the homes of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria.

The author by accident found just such a plant. He found it in a simple manner — by the reading of a seed catalogue which described the virtues of the sand, or hairy vetch, and while the description of this plant in this catalogue seemed to be so extravagantly exaggerated, yet the author, spurred on by the necessity of doing something to restore his worn-out farm, was eager to grasp at anything that seemed to have in it any element of relief. He concluded that if this plant had only one-tenth of the soil-restoring powers claimed for it, it was the soil panacea needed by the owners of worn-out soil, so he procured seed of the sand, or hairy vetch, and in the fall of 1906 sowed it upon two acres of his poorest land. This was the beginning of his experiments with, and investigations of, the vetch plant, which has led up to the preparation of this volume.

Within the last few years so much has been written in the agricultural papers about vetch that we feel that a book on vetch is needed. As to the qualifications of the author to write such a book, he has only to say, that for six years he has grown on his farm and on farms under his control, hundreds of acres of the vetch plant. And upon the old home farm mentioned in the beginning of this introduction, there has been grown by his brother on an average of fifty acres each year for the past five years, which have been closely observed by the author.

The author has also written to growers of vetch all over the world and obtained their experience with the plant, so he feels qualified to write this volume upon so valuable and so little known plant to the agricultural world, and so submits it to judgment.

The growing of the vetch plant has been a pleasing and profitable experience with the author. It has led him into the mysteries and intricacies of the worn-soil problem. Its restoration of the worn soils upon his "Vetchfalfa Farm" and his old pioneer home farm until they produced crops beyond his fondest dreams, have been experiences that have given him the pleasure of doing seemingly impossible things, which is the most pleasing and lasting pleasure that can come to man.

It is hoped that the study of this book will prove so great an inspiration to the reader that he will join the company of those who are seeking the solution of the worn-out soil problem — the most vital question now confronting the American people.

January, 1912.

Chapter I

"Out of names, words, traditions, passages of books and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time." — Bacon.

Historical Resume.

There is a tradition that vetch was born beneath the soft Italian sky. History does not prove tradition's claim, for the dissemination of vetch has been so wi(ie that its native country is unknown.

Its ancient Latin name "vicia," and the fact that the old Roman agriculturist grew it extensively as a "balance ration" for the feeding of his soil and domestic animals, is some evidence of its Italian origin. However, the "Prophet of the Messiah," Isaiah, who prophesied during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the early kings of Babylon, wrote of fitch, or vetch.

An old name for vetch was "cicer," or chick pea which belonged to the legume family, and which grew in Asia, Africa, and the south of Europe. Its nutritious seeds were used in cookery and were roasted and called "parched pulse" and used as food for travelers in the eastern deserts. This was, no doubt, the parched pulse which the young unblemished Daniel and his Israelitic companions requested the prince of eunuchs to give them to eat when they purposed in their hearts not to defile themselves by eating and drinking King Nebuchadnezzar's meat and wine, the eating of which pulse, and the drinking of water, made them fairer of countenance and fairer in flesh than those who ate the king's meat and drank the king's wine.

These facts would therefore indicate that vetch was known and cultivated in the region about Babylon from its foundation. And as the Babylonish Empire was founded one hundred and fifteen years after the Deluge, it would tlierefore follow that the vetch plant was really known to agriculture when Noah and his kin left the Ark and took up again the cultivation of the soil.

Vetch was a favorite with the Roman farmer, for his fields were fertile with it, yet it never gave him any annoyance — it needed no cultivation or manure to make it flourish. The Roman farmer had three seasons for the sowing of vetch ; one about the setting of the star Arcturus; one in Januiry, and one the last of March. The first sowing was for the seed crop, and the last sowing for foliage. With the Romans it flourished best in dry places, but it grew freely in the shade.

The lentils, extensively cultivated in Europe as a food for stock, both herbage and seed being used for that purpose, and so much prized by the Mexicans as food, and used by the Germans as a basis of the "Linsen soup," is a species of vetch.

Certain species of the vetch plant, however, are undoubtedly native to America, like the cow vetch, or blue vetch (vicia cracca) having stems two to three feet in length, and found on the borders of thickets or the edge of cultivated fields, and which was undoubtedly the wild vetch found on our prairies.

One of the vetches of agriculture, "vicia sativa," or spring vetch, is beyond question a native of southern

Europe and western Asia, and from there was disseminated to all parts of the civilized world.

The name "vik" from which was derived "vicia" dates from a remote period in Europe, for it is mentioned in the language of the Pelasgians who were the early inhabitants of the Grecian Peninsula, and who existed earlier than the fifteenth century B. C, a mighty people, carrying on an extensive commerce, and having a large navy, and who made war with Ramses II, King of Egypt, and conquered lower Egypt.

The vetch plant was also found among the Slavs from whence sprang the Russians, who stand today as one of the greatest growers of vetch, and from whom we receive most of the vetch seed that is imported to this country.

It is said that the vetch plant is distinct and useful enough to herbivorous animals to have received common names from the earliest times.

There was also a species of vetch grown by the ancient Greeks, seed of which has been found in the excavations of Troy. And centuries ago it was cultivated in Spain.

"Vicia sativa," or spring vetch, was brought to America about the time of the Revolutionary War, but the American farmer has been indifferent to its great value as a fertilizing and soiling plant. So, for all the years since its adoption to American soil, it has been rarely cultivated except in recent years. This is the common vetch, or tare, (not, however, to be confounded with the tare of Scripture, for that was a different species of plant) which has for ages been cultivated throughout Europe for a fodder for cattle, and which was for many years regarded as a weed in America.

The "vicia villosa," hairy, sand, or winter vetch, was brought to America from Europe in 1847. This variety is most commonly called Russian vetch — not because it is a native of Russia, but for the reason that on account of its hardiness and value as a soiling, fertilizing and seed plant, the Russians grow it extensively, and, as stated, export to the United States and other countries large quantities of its seed. This species of vetch has been extensively cultivated in France for more than a quarter of a century.

In the year 1910 there were 593,000 acres of vetch cultivated in France, which was principally grown in the north and west parts of France, common, or spring vetch being chiefly cultivated.

In Germany the hairy vetch is better known and more extensively cultivated, but it is called "Winter Sand Wicken." It is grown in great quantities upon the sandy lands in the vicinity of Berlin and in the northeastern parts of Germany, where it is highly prized as a cover and green manuring crop.

All of the experiment stations of the United States have some time or other in the past ten years experimented with many varieties of the vetch plant, the result of which experiments will be given in this volume under an appropriate chapter.

From this historical resume it can readily be seen that the vetch plant is of very ancient origin, and that its merits as a soiling and fertilizing plant have been recognized by the inhabitants of the old world from times very remote. That the vetch has not been extensively cultivated in America, does not argue against its value, for America has had for all the centuries that it has been occupied, so much rich verdant soil that the American farmer, when he exhausted his land by cultivation, had only to move on and preempt newer lands, rich in grazing for his stock, or which grew native feeds and grasses in abundance, and which was rich in all the elements necessary to grow big crops. Now, when the virgin soil hias all been preempted, and the American farmer finds himself in the possession of worn soils and no new lands in sight to subdue, he must turn about and conquer his worn soils by the use of the plants with which the inhabitants of the old countries beyond the seas conquered and restored

The common growth of earth, the

Foodful ear,"

HAIRY VETCH PLANTS GROWN IN NORTHERN INDIANA

TAKEN FROM SOIL IN LATTER PART OF APRIL

The Stems Were More Than Three Feet in Length.

Note the Large Number of Nodules on the Roots.

CHAPTER 11.

"All sorts are here that all the earth yields ! Variety without end." — Milton.

Varieties and Characteristics — Its Kindred.

Vetch is a member of the botanical pulse family, or that class of plants called the legumes, or plants that bear their seeds in a pod.

Its varieties have been numbered and described as one hundred and twenty, twenty-three of which are found in northeastern and northwestern North America.

The varieties of vetch are mostly climbing plants, possessing long, slender, weak stems, having tendrils at or near the extreme end of each pinnate leaf. The plant generally being of a clinging or climbing nature, it requires support of other plants to hold it off the ground if it is desired to easily harvest it for hay or to save its seed. The branches generally grow from two to five feet in length, yet the author has known the hairy, or sand vetch, sown on rich ground, to produce branches twelve feet long.

A few of the vetches like Narbonne vetch produce erect branches, which will stand up without support and which do not have tendrils.

The flowers of the vetch are borne in clusters on a long stem with many one-flowered lateral stalks, and generally in shape are like the black locust flower. In shade of color they are pink, violet, purple, blue, and white, the prevailing color being a bluish purple.

upon close observation the color of the bIi>om of hairy or sand vetch appears to be blue, but when a field in full bloom is observed at a distance the color is distinctly purple.

No good purpose can be subserved in describing the

characteristics of each and all the varieties of vetch, as

all vetches have similar characteristics, and the purpose

of this volume is to deal chiefly with the two vetches of

modern agriculture, to-wit: The hairy, or sand vetch

{Vicia villosa), and the common, or smooth, vetch.or spring tare (Vicia sativa).

However, a few of the pther varieties of vetch should be given a brief mention.

StoIIey's vetch (Vicia Leavenwortbii) growing wild in the central and western part of Texas, having small leaves and trailing stems, resists drouth, and makes fine early grazing for stock. It is valuable as a cover and green manuring crop.

A vetch (Lathy rus birsutus) similar in characteristics to spring vetch, and grown in the South for fall and spring pasture, is referred to as a winter vetch, which is somewhat misleading, as it is not hardy north of Mason and Dixon's line.

In the South it may justly be termed a winter vetch. It is chiefly cut and cured for hay.

Dakota vetch (Lotus Americanus, or Hosackia) found in the northwest of the United States, of a bushy nature, is pastured and cut for hay.

The kidney vetch (Antbyllis vulneraria) differing from most all varieties of vetch, in that it lives for more than two years and has spreading stems about one foot high that stand erect ; the plant being covered with short,

•oft, delicate hairs, and having flowers of yellow to a deep red color. This variety of vetch is found in all parts of Europe and Asia. It has the good characteristic of growing well in the poorest soil, especially those soils found in the limestone regions. It was first cultivated in Germany. This plant has been frequently tested by the United States government agricultural stations, but is reported of little value.

The bird vetch, or wild pea (Vicia Cracca) called also blue vetch, cow vetch and French pea, is cultivated in Europe, both for soiling and for hay, and is highly prized in Germany for sheep pasture. It is suitable for low meadows and open woodlands. It is found in the meadows of Vermont and has increased so rapidly in that state as to cause alarm. Yet some farmers regard it as a most valuable plant, and have expressed the wish that their meadows were covered with it. But the majority of farmers deem it a weed pest.

It is a distinct variety of the vetch family, having every characteristic of the vetch plant even to the long, trailing stems, clusters of blue blossoms, pea-like pods and nodule-covered roots. It is found in many of the woodlands of eastern America, Kentucky,- Iowa, northward and northwest. The author is of the opinion that this is the vetch known as a weed in the great wheat growing districts of the Northwest and Canada, which survives either heat or cold, and resisting all methods of extermination, grows under the same conditions as wheat itself and mixes its seed with the threshed wheat.

In Vermont it is most commonly found in the meadows and fence rows. It grows best on a strong heavy soil, such as is best suited for timothy, and grows vigorously in the Champlain clays.

When it appears in the meadows it grows so luxuriantly that it smothers out other grasses. It is a deceptive plant in that it grows a less amount of foliage than one is led to expect from its appearance. Its hay is relished by stock and has as much feeding value as clover. Its good points are its value as a haying and soiling crop, and its ability to enrich the soil as a nitrogen gatherer. Its bad points are its seeming antipathy for other plants, as it invariably over-tops and smothers them out and is difficult to kill.

The narrow-leaf vetch (Vicia augustijolia) is said to be a perennial by N. L. Willet, who has grown it in the South near Augusta, Georgia, and who also says that as a vetch it is priceless. The seeds of this variety are black and about half the size of the hairy vetch. Its seeds do not ripen at once, and as the seed pods that first ripen shatter their seeds before the later pods mature, it is a difficult matter to save its seed and so, commercially, the seed is scarce. One party claimed that he was three years in obtaining three bushels of seed for a government experiment station. This is one of the most valuable vetches grown if its seeds could be procured in sufficient quantities.

There was a wild vetch that grew on the prairies of Iowa and other western states, which was one of nature's nitrogen gathering plants that assisted in storing these rich prairie lands with the great stock of nitrogen found in them when the American farmer broueht them into sulDJection, but w^hich afterward was farmed out of them by his mining system of agriculture.

Common or smooth vetch (Vicia sativa), called also English or Oregon winter vetch, or spring tares, came from the Old World, has violet-purple flowers borne mostly in pairs, and has swelled, puffy, somewhat flattened, gray mottled seeds. It is a stooling plant having from four to six stalks. This vetch is an annual and is usually sown in the spring. But where winters are mild it may be sown in September and harvested the following May. It will not stand severe cold. The minimum temperature it will endure is about ten degrees above zero, although it has stood a temperature of four degrees below zero in the state of Oregon without injury, when grown upon lands that were well drained. It, however, frequently winter kills even as far south as Georgia. This variety of vetch grows to perfection in the beautiful Willamette Valley of the Northwest, where thousands of acres of it are grown for hay and seed. The hay yields from three to six tons to the acre, and seed, giving financial returns of sixty dollars to seventy dollars an acre. Vast quantities of the seed produced in Oregon are shipped to California orchards, where it is grown as a cover crop. Thousands of acres of this variety of vetch are also grown in Georgia and South Carolina, where it stands in high regard as an improver of soil, especially for the improving of cotton lands, and for the profit received for its hay. As this is one of the two true vetches of agriculture more will be said about it in subsequent chapters.

Hairy, sand, or winter vetch (Vicia villosa) are three names for one vetch. It is the hardy vetch of agriculture, withstanding the rigors of winter and is grown in some of the most northern states, even in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin, and it is said to stand the winters of that region. The stems of this variety being more slender than any other variety, it has the trailing or climbing habit and must have support or it trails upon the px)tind. It is a great stooling plant and so sends ont a great number of stems at the surface of the ground, as many as twelve to a plant, the stems in full growth reaching a length of from three to twelve feet, the length depending upon the soil where grown. When seed of the hairy vetch is planted and it commences to grow, a slender, weak-looking stem is first sent up to the height of two or three inches. Soon other stems shoot out from the main stem near the surface of the ground which trail upon the soil. If seed is sown early in the fall and there is sufficient moisture to hasten the growth of the plant, the stems will make a growth of a foot in length before winter, and the plants cover the g^round like a carpet and remain green all winter. The fall growth never makes any more growth after winter sets in, but a further growth of the plant commencing in the spring is from new shoots coming out of the main plant stem at the ground. The plant does most of its stooling in the spring. The fall growth remains green for a time, then withers and dies. The new shoots come in the spring very early and grow so rapidly that by the middle of May the plants are in full bloom.

A field of hairy, sand, or winter vetch in full bloom is one of the most beautiful of agricultural scenes. Its delicate, bluish-purple flowers are borne in such great profusion that at a distance a field of them seems like a sea of purple, making such a charming landscape picture as to be never forgotten.

The under surface of the plant is covered with a dense coat of gray hairs from which it gets its name hairy vetch. It gets its name sand vetch from the fact that it flourishes upon sandy lands and seems to be especially adapted for sandy soils, although it readily grows on anj land, and especially upon the poor lands, which makes it a valuable plant for worn-out soils. It gets its name winter vetch from the fact that it is the only variety of Tetch plant that will withstand the rigors of a severe winter, or a temperature of zero and under. Its seeds are small, round, and bluish black in color, not uniform in size, and comparing in size to number two and number three bird shot. This variety of vetch affords a larger amount of forage than any other variety. Hairy vetch is an annual and like spring vetch, if sown in the fall, makes its growth between the time it was sown and the following May. It freely matures its seed and will reseed itself if harvesting is delayed until some seed pods have matured their seeds, which shatter in harvesting. Generally hairy vetch matures its seeds and dies in June.

It is claimed in the northwestern part of the United States that if hairy vetch is planted about the middle of April it will mature seed the same season. It is also claimed that if hairy vetch is mowed while in bloom it will, like alfalfa, spring up again and from which said second crop seed can be obtained. And one party in Michigan claims that if it is cut when it is in bloom, and not cut too closely, it can be cut as many as three times. The author has never succeeded in obtaining the second crop, although he has experimented along this line several times.

It is also claimed that it can be sown in April and May and mown in the fall and early the next spring will come forth vigorous, making fine pasture or a crop of hay or seed.

Chapter III

And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and the Herb yielding seed, whose seed is in itself.— Gen. I, U.

Seed and Seeding.

The seed of the common or spring vetch has been described as being swelled, puffy, somewhat flattened and gray mottled in color. The seed of this variety is almost universally of the same size.

The seed of the hairy vetch has been described as being ununifom in size and of a bluish black color. Generaily they are about half the size of the seed of the spring vetch. Both of these varieties of vetch seed fully and freely, and both have the characteristic of shedding some of their seed before they can be harvested As many as one thousand seeds have been known to form on a single hairy vetch plant. The seeds are formed in small pods similar in shape to a pea pod. If these vetches are sown in the fall they will mature their seeds in June following, except in the South where they generally mature their seeds in May.

^ ^ In Oregon, when the spring vetch is sown for seed, It is sown upon the ground upon which a spring grain crop has been grown. The ground is thoroughly disced and about seventy-five pounds of seed to the acre'is sown.' although one hundred pounds gives better results. In the spring, if the growth seems to be rank it is pastured