Most of the vetches grow well in the California valleys during the rainy season; the common vetch, Vicia sativa, and the hairy vetch, Vicia hirsuta, are giving best results.  The proper time to plant is at the beginning of the rainy season.  They will stand some alkali, especially during the rainy season, when it is likely to be distributed by the downward movement of water, but it is very easy to find land which has too much alkali for them.  These plants seed well in some parts of the valley, but a local trial must be made to give you definite information.

Growing Vetch for Hay.

How many pounds of vetch seed should be sown to the acre?  How many tons per acre in the crop?  As I desire to change my crop, having to some extent exhausted the soil with oats, how advisable will it be to sow wheat with the vetch to give it something to climb on?  If so, and wheat is not desirable under the circumstances, what?  In using vetch for horse fodder, how much barley should be fed with it per day for a driving horse?  For a draught horse?  Is vetch sown and harvested at about the same time as other crops?

Except in very frosty places, vetch can be sown after the rain begins at about 40 to 60 pounds of seed to the acre.  The yield will depend upon the land and on the moisture supply, and cannot be prophesied.  One grower reports three tons of hay per acre near Napa.  If the land usually yields a good hay crop, it should yield a greater weight of vetch.  In mowing for hay purposes it is desirable to raise the vetch off the ground to facilitate the action of the mower.  Oats would be better than wheat, because rather quicker in winter growth.  If the vetch is to be fed green, rye is a good grain, but not good for hay purposes because of the hardness of the stem.  There is no particular difference in the plant-food requirements of the different grains, so that there is nothing gained in that way in the choice of wheat.  In feeding a combined vetch and barley hay, the ration is balanced; the feeding of grain would not be necessary, except in case of hard work under the same conditions grain is usually fed to horses and in about the same amounts.  Vetch requires a longer season than ordinary oat or barley hay crop to make a larger growth, consequently an early sowing is desirable.

Cover Crop in Hop Yard.

Will you please give information concerning cow peas or the most suitable crop to sow in a hop field for winter growth, to be plowed under as a fertilizer in the spring?  Also, would it injure the vines to be cut down before they die, so as to sow the mulch crop soon as possible after the hops are gathered?

Cow peas would not do for the use which you propose, because they would be speedily killed by frost on low lands, usually chosen for hops, and would give you no growth during the frosty season.  Probably there is nothing better than burr clover for such a winter growth.  Hop vines should be allowed to grow as long as they maintain the thrifty green color, because the growth of the leaves strengthens the root.  But when they begin to become weakened and yellow they can be removed without injury.  It is not necessary to wait for them to become fully dead.