The Production of New and Improved Varieties of Timothy 375 



When this selection of the best rows has been made, cut the crop on 

 the discarded rows immediately so that the pollen from these discarded 

 rows will not containinate by cross-fertilization the seed developing on 

 the selected rows. At any convenient period these discarded rows may 

 ba dug up or plowed out, as they will be needed no longer. 



p. Propagating from the select rows. — The rows selected from the clonal 

 test plat should represent almost certainly superior types and all the seed 

 on these rows should be allowed to ripen, when each row should be cut 

 and threshed separately and seed retained to plant multiplication plats, 

 as described in the next paragraph. By a little cultivation the selected 

 rows in the clonal test plat may be retained for at least five or six years, 

 and probably longer, as a source of supply of seed of a superior kind. In 

 order to utilize the land around them where the discarded rows were cut 

 out, some vegetables could be planted each year; and manure applied 

 for the vegetables would benefit the timothy rows. As the rows of select 

 types begin to run out or become impure by volunteer timothy plants 

 around them or by other grasses growing in the clumps, other and more 

 extended clonal rows could be planted from them. 



10. The multiplication plat. — The seed taken from the select rows of 

 the clonal test plat should be sown in the early fall, sometime before the 

 15th of September, in broadcast plats as large as the amount of seed 

 obtained will pennit. The land on which the seed is to be sown should 

 be lightly manured, plowed, very thoroughly harrowed, and pulverized. 

 Good preparation for timothy pays as well as does good preparation for 

 alfalfa. Sow these plats as timothy is ordinarily sown, at the rate of about 

 sixteen pounds of seed per acre. There should be enough seed from each 

 row to plant about one eighth of an acre. If the seed from each select 

 clonal row is sown in separate plats adjoining one another, the superiority 

 of one type over the others for field conditions may be judged and finally 

 all but the best types eliminated. The seed from these broadcast multi- 

 plication plats can be utilized the next year to plant a fairly large field, 

 which in turn, if desired, may be harvested for seed to plant still larger 

 areas. The various multiplication plats may be grown for several years 

 before they become too weedy to utilize, and the time may be extended, 

 if desired, by surface dressing with manure and by pulling such weeds 

 as come up in the plats. 



11. Continuation of the selection. — If the farmer has in mind the con- 

 tinuous improvement of his seed with the view of ultimately selling seed 

 regularly as improved seed (which policy is certainly to be commended), 

 a number of seedlings should be grown in flats or boxes, as described in 

 paragraph 2, from seeds of each of the selected rows in the clonal test plat. 

 It will be remembered that each of these rows represents a single selected 



