Vetches generally do not require a particular soil, but some varieties are better adapted to certain soil types than others. All varieties do well on rich loam. Hairy vetch, smooth, Monantha, and woollypod vetches do well on poor, sandy soils. Hungarian vetch is well suited to heavy, wet soil where other varieties fail to thrive.

A moderate supply of moisture is necessary for vetches. None tolerates drought.

Little or no seedbed preparation is used when vetches follow cultivated crops. The seed is usually sown broadcast and disked in. When seeded in ricefields, the seed is broadcast by airplane into mud following drainage preparatory to harvesting the rice. Disked seedbeds are used in the Pacific Northwest when vetch follows cultivated crops or spring-seeded small grains.

In the Northern and Eastern States, where hard freezes occur, all cultivated vetches, except hairy vetch, should be sown early in spring. Hairy vetch may be sown in August and early September. In the Pacific coast region, west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains, vetches can be sown in the fall. Seedings also are common in September and October in the Cotton Belt.

Seeding rates vary according to variety and locality. Hairy, smooth, narrowleaf, and woollypod vetches require 20 to 30 pounds; Hungarian, Monantha, and the common vetches, 30 to 50 pounds; and Bard and purple vetches, 60 to 70 pounds to the acre.

The seed is broadcast or drill planted. Drill-planted stands are preferred for seed production. The depth of planting, which varies with the soil type and the amount of surface moisture, usually ranges from 1.5 to 3 inches.

Vetch grown for seed often is sown in pure stands. Hay stands usually include a companion crop of oats, barley, or rye.

On soils deficient in phosphorus, sulfur, or potash, vetches grown for seed, hay, or cover crops will respond to liberal amounts of those elements.

Inoculation is essential to the growth of all vetches.

To grow vetches for seed requires little special management. If it grows fast and is not clipped or grazed, it tends to smother weeds.

Diseases and pests are few. The vetch bruchid (Bruchus brachialis) was a serious threat to the vetch seed industry in Oregon in the 1940's. DDT effectively controlled it.

Honey bees and bumble bees like to visit vetch blossoms. The structure of the vetch flower is adapted to cross-pollination, and visits by pollinators are essential for maximum seed set.

To harvest seed of hairy, smooth, woollypod, and other shattering vetches, the plants must be cut as soon as the lower pods are fully ripe.

The nonshattering species, such as purple and Hungarian vetches, are allowed to ripen 80 to 95 percent of the pods before cutting. An important point in growing vetch for seed is to handle the crop quickly and as little as possible to avoid seed shatter.

FIELD PEAS are grown like small grain; in fact, a mixture of oats and peas sometimes is used in growing seed.

Peas for seed are seeded in the fall or spring, depending on locality. The crop is fall seeded in September to early November in the Pacific coast region. Often winter oats is a companion crop. In the irrigated section of Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Oregon, peas are planted alone in early spring.

With a companion crop, the rate of seeding is 80 pounds of peas and 40 pounds of oats. For irrigated plantings made in spring the seeding rates are 80 to 100 pounds of pea seed per acre. The crop is usually drill seeded and covered to a depth of 1.5 to 3 inches.

Field peas prefer an abundance of lime and often respond to liberal amounts of sulfur. Sulfur in the form of gypsum is used at rates of 100 to 150 pounds per acre in western Oregon. The elemental sulfur is used at a rate of 50 pounds per acre on irrigated lands.

Field peas are subject to bacterial blight, leaf blotch, downy mildew, anthracnose, and root rot. The growing of peas on different fields that are rotated helps to reduce the incidence of disease.

Insects that infest peas are the pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum) and pea moth (Laspeyresia nigricana). The pea aphid has been destructive in some years. Good control of the pea weevil can be had by dusting with DDT before the eggs are deposited.

Field peas should be cut for seed as soon as the pods are mature and the seed is firm. Peas may be windrowed or bunched for drying and threshed directly from windrows.

Threshing is usually done with an ordinary grain combine. The adjustment of threshing equipment should be such as to eliminate cracking, chipping, and breaking of seed.

M. W. PEDERSEN is a research agronomist in the Forage and Range Research Branch of the Crops Research Division of the Agricultural Research Service. Since joining the Department of Agriculture, he has been engaged in plant breeding and seed production research.

L. G. JONES is a specialist in the Department of Agronomy, University of California, Davis. He has done research since 1946 in Problems of seed production, irrigation, and harvesting methods. In 1951, at the request of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he served on a mission to Iraq to undertake a general review of the country's economic potentialities and make recommendations for a development program.

T. H. ROGERS is Head of the Department of Agronomy, University of Georgia, Athens. Formerly he was professor of agronomy, the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and agronomist in the University of Kentucky.