374 Bulletin 313 



critically in order to determine which head or heads have given the best 

 progeny as a whole. If any one or two rows are markedly superior to 

 the others, select several of the best plants in each of these good rows, 

 marking the selected plants by stakes driven down by their sides. (In 

 order to determine the character of a good timothy plant, read the section 

 of this bulletin on " Types of Timothy Varieties Desired," [page 353] 

 and examine especially Plate II, Figs. 2,3, and 4, and Plate III, Fig. 6.) 

 Also select the one best plant in each of the other rows and mark these 

 plants by stakes as suggested above. Now cut the crop developed on all 

 the plants, in order to let the fall growth start early. 



6. Testing ike selected plants as clonal varieties. — In order to make a 

 further test of the fourteen or fifteen plants that will have been selected 

 in accordance with the preceding paragraphs, between the 5th and the 

 20th of September choose another uniform plat of fairly good soil and 

 prepare for planting an area slightly over 60 feet square. This plat 

 should be located at some distance from any other timothy, preferably 

 at least 200 to 300 feet. When a good season for planting comes, follow- 

 ing a rain, dig up each selected plant in turn and separate the bulbs or 

 slips (Fig. 91, page 355), and use these in planting a row from each of 

 the plants selected and marked. As before, place the rows 4 feet apart 

 and the plants 2 feet apart in the rows. Transplant about thirty slips 

 from each of the selected plarits, so that there will be a single row about 

 sixty feet long from each. The transplanting is very easily and quickly 

 done. This plat may be designated as the " clonal test plat." If one 

 desires to see what differences exist in timothy, a few low-yielding plants 

 should be chosen, also, and planted by slips in the clonal test plat. 



As soon as this clonal test plat is planted from the selected plants, the 

 seedling test plat may be plowed up and used for other purposes. 



7. Cultivation of clonal test plat. — The clonal test plat should be culti- 

 vated and hoed sufificiently to keep the weeds down and to allow the full 

 development of the plants. 



8. Selecting the best clonal rows. — As in the seedling test plat, the plants 

 in the clonal test plat cannot be satisfactorily judged until the second 

 season after planting, and all that is required previous to this time is the 

 cultivation and harvesting of the plants the first season before the seed 

 falls. When the plants are well headed the second season and are about 

 to begin blooming, the final examination can be made. Now go over 

 each row carefully and examine it with reference to yield and desirability 

 of type, and select the superior row or rows. It will be best to retain at 

 least two or three of the best rows, or more if there is but little difference 

 in them. Good early-maturing and good late-maturing rows should 

 be retained if both are present in the test plat. 



