. Circular. Gramineae -- United States; Forage plants -- United States. ^^^. Circular No. 6.—(Agros. 25.) United States Departnfetrf of Agriculture, DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. [(irass and Forage Plant Investigations.] THE C'ULTIVATEI) VETCHES. The demand for early spring forage plants is increasing in almost every section of the United States. This demand arises from a variety of causes, chief among which is the rapid increase of the dairying industry. Soiling crops and pastures supply the desired succulent forage from early summer until the first hard autumn freeze, and ensilage and root crops
. Circular. Gramineae -- United States; Forage plants -- United States. ^^^. Circular No. 6.—(Agros. 25.) United States Departnfetrf of Agriculture, DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. [(irass and Forage Plant Investigations.] THE C'ULTIVATEI) VETCHES. The demand for early spring forage plants is increasing in almost every section of the United States. This demand arises from a variety of causes, chief among which is the rapid increase of the dairying industry. Soiling crops and pastures supply the desired succulent forage from early summer until the first hard autumn freeze, and ensilage and root crops tide over the early winter. With good management such sul:)stitutes for green forage may be made to last until the grass starts, but on too many American farms there is a period of shortage of succulent feed in late winter and spring. To bridge over this critical period, annual leguminous crops, such as crimson clover and the vetches, are each year coming deservedly into greater prominence. The vetches are nitrogen gatherers. Like the clovers they have the property of absorbing through their roots the free gaseous nitrogen of the air, which is present in all well cultivated soils, and fixing a portion of it in a form which may become either a fertilizer if left in the soil or a muscle-making element in the forage. Nearly all leguminous forage crops have this property and hence their great importance as green manure and soiling crops. The vetches are also useful because they form a living mulch in spring and early winter, shading the ground and preventing the growth of weeds, thus retarding the constant loss of soluble plant foods that is going on wherever a soil is left bare and unprotected from the direct action of the elements. A mulch of weeds would serve the same purpose, but all can see why it would be better to have the winter cover consist of vetches or clovers rather than of a tangle of noxious weeds. In the Southern States vetches should be sown in the late summer or
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