VETCH, in botany, the English name for Vicia sativa, also known as tares, a leguminous annual herb with trailing or climb ing stems, compound leaves with five or six pairs of leaflets, reddish-purple flowers borne singly or in pairs in the leaf-axis, and a silky pod containing four to ten smooth seeds. The wild form, sometimes regarded as a distinct species, V. angustifolia, is common in dry soils. There are two races of the cultivated vetch, winter and spring vetches: the former, a hardy form, capable of enduring frost, has smoother, more cylindrical pods with smaller seeds than the summer variety, and gives less bulk of stem and leaves. The spring vetch is a more delicate plant and grows more rapidly and luxuriantly than the winter variety.
The name vetch is applied to other species of the genus Vicia. Vicia orobus, bitter vetch, and V. sylvatica, wood vetch, are British plants. Another British plant, Hippocrepis, is known as horseshoe vetch from the fact of its pod breaking into several horseshoe-shaped joints. Anthyllis vulneraria is kidney-vetch, a herb with heads of usually yellow flowers, found on dry banks. Astragalus, another genus of Leguminosae, is known as milk vetch ; species of Coronilla are known as crown vetch.
Vetches are a very valuable forage crop indigenous to Great Britain. Vetches are well adapted for poor soils. They are gener ally used in combination with grass and clover, beginning with the first cutting of the latter in May, taking the winter vetches in June, recurring to the Italian rye grass or clover as the second cutting is ready, and afterwards bringing the spring vetches into use. Each crop of vetch can thus be utilized when in its best condition for cattle food. (X.) Cultivation in the United States.—Vetches are most ex tensively grown in the Pacific Coast area in the States of Wash ington, Oregon and California, and in the Great Lakes area in the States of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and New York. In the latter region hairy vetch (V. villosa) is used almost exclusively, while in the former region common vetch (V. sativa) is much more fre quently planted. Hairy vetch is chiefly grown for green manure and seed crop. Common vetch, while widely grown as a soil improving crop, is used in western Oregon and Washington for pasturage, silage, hay, green fodder and seed crop. In general, the cultural practices with vetches are the same as in European countries. Like other legumes, vetches require the presence of certain symbiotic bacteria for their successful development; in planting vetch on lands for the first time such bacteria must be supplied by artificial inoculation.
Besides the hairy and the common vetch, several other species are grown to a limited extent, as the Hungarian vetch (V. pan nonica) and the purple vetch (V . atropurpurea) in the Pacific States, and the monantha vetch (V. monantha) in the Gulf States.
(R. McKE.) Vetches have long been esteemed as a supplementary green food for summer feeding, but in recent years they have been ex tensively cultivated also for the purposes of ensilage. Although a certain proportion of the vetch acreage must be cultivated for seed production, the crop is not commonly grown for its grain, but is generally cut in the flowering or early-seeding stage for the purposes first mentioned. Sometimes, however, vetches are grown in association with rye for early spring grazing—though earliness of growth in spring is not one of the special features of the vetch plant. Grown in association with oats they form a useful mixture for silage, for conversion into hay, or for green fodder.
There are two varieties of the common vetch (Vida sativa), viz., the winter and the summer sorts. The botanical distinctions between the two varieties are not very pronounced, and in prac tice greater reliance must be placed on the parentage of the seed than on its name. When winter vetches are required, it is important to obtain seed from a crop that had been sown in the autumn.
Vetches are adapted for a very wide range of soils, but yield the greatest bulk of forage on land of the heavier and more moist class. The crop is usually grown without yard manure, but where this is available the vetch can make good use of it. In the absence of dung, a complete mixture of artificial manures should be given where the soil is in poor heart.
Even when intended for seed production, vetches are commonly grown in association with another crop that will afford mechanical support. For ensilage, typical mixtures for autumn sowing are two bushels of tares and 2 bushel of rye per acre; and two bushels of tares, 4 bushel of beans and bushel of winter oats. These are for light and heavy land respectively. On rich land, however, lighter seedings of tares are required to avoid lodging, the differ ence being made up by increased quantities of beans and oats.
The vetches grown in Great Britain are put to a variety of uses. About 15% of the area is cut for hay, about 6o% is cut for green fodder or silage, and about 25% is harvested ripe for the seed. A certain amount of green fodder and hay is sold to horse and cow owners in towns, but this trade declined very sharply with the reduction in the number of horses and of town dairies, and is now very small. Of the seed, only about 5,000 tons per annum are placed on the market, 70% of the produce being used for seed purposes or for feeding to stock on farms. That sold is usually bought for poultry and pigeon mixtures. Im ports of vetch seed averaged only 25,000 tons in the five years 1922 to 1926, the bulk coming from the Baltic.