2/8 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



are the diseases of timothy? What difference is there in timo- 

 thy in its rapidity of growth ; in its earhness or lateness? They 

 have found a (Hfference of two weeks in the matter of maturity. 

 Some of the })lants are immune to disease, others were found 

 to be very susceptible to timothy rust wdiich is so common at 

 the present time. Other plants responded quickly to cutting, 

 while others did not come up until the second year. Some plants 

 ran along the ground, making a good pasture grass ; others 

 grew into good, high stalks and then you would, of course, 

 get a high yield. So here were all these plants with all these 

 differences. The next thing was to get pure seed from them, 

 because timothy is wind fertilized. If here is a good strain and 

 there a poor one, they will mix and you cannot get good seed. 

 We take ordinary twelve-pound bags and put them over the 

 plant where we want to get pure seed. Formerly we used to 

 make a sort of tent over the plant, but this did not work well, 

 so we use the twelve-pound bag and we find, by going out and 

 shaking the bag every morning, a considerable amount of seed 

 will be produced, but not a large quantity. 



The next thing is to try out the producing power of each of 

 these plants. We grow them in small rows, and I wish I had 

 the lantern slides to show you the great difference in the timothy 

 plants. This experiment with timothy was carried on for sev- 

 eral years, until a certain number of very superior sorts were 

 obtained and now there are distinct varieties of timothy — as 

 distinct as any variety of apple you ever saw ; varieties for early 

 and late crops ; for pasture purposes and for seed purposes, 

 and so on. Two or three years ago these sorts were distributed 

 over the state to see if they would hold up under all conditions. 

 The field the experiments were conducted in was a clay soil. 

 The plants were taken to Long Island and put in sandy soil, and 

 in other types of soil, and it was found that the average yield of 

 these superior sorts was a ton and a half more to the acre than 

 by ordinary timothy. 



