TIMOTHY. 75 



clover is abundantly present the safer plan is to cure 

 the hay in cocks. But a mixture of timothy is favor- 

 able rather than otherwise to the curing of clover since 

 it cures more readily. 



Securing Seed. — When the timothy crop is intended 

 for seed, it may be necessary to spend some time in re- 

 moving weeds from the same either by hand pulling 

 or by using the spud, or what is usually better by 

 using both. This of course should be done before any 

 of the seeds mature. 



Among the noxious weeds that sometimes infest tim- 

 othy meadows are : Pigeon weed (Lithospermum ar- 

 vense), sometimes called red root; Wild flax (Camelina 

 Sativa), sometimes called false flax; the Canada thistle 

 (Cirsium arvense), blue weed (Echium vulgare), 

 French weed {Thalaspi arvense) and Hungarian mus- 

 tard (Sisymhriuni sinapistrum) ; also couch or quack 

 grass {Agropyrum repens). All these mature their 

 seeds before timothy is harvested for seed. 



Timothy is ready for being harvested for seed when 

 the seeds turn brown and as soon as ready it should 

 be promptly harvested and put in shock. If not har- 

 vested with reasonable promptness and if left stand- 

 ing long in the shock Avhen harvested there is likely to 

 be considerable loss from the shedding of the seed. The 

 binder can best be used in cutting the seed crop. The 

 next best implement would probably be the self rake 

 reaper. When thus cut, however, the labor in handling 

 w^ould be greater. The crop may be threshed at once 

 or it may be stored for threshing as desired. It is 

 threshed with the ordinary threshing machine, but the 



