Timothy is by far the most important perennial grass cultivated 

 in North America. It is best known because of its extremely wide- 

 spread use for hay, but also merits recognition as a very important 

 forage plant on the western ranges. Whether it is native to parts 

 of the North American continent is still somewhat in controversy, 

 although the preponderance of belief is that timothy was presumably 

 accidentally introduced into America in early colonial times from 

 Europe. All authorities, however, seem to be agreed that it was first 

 cultivated on this continent; that it bears an American name 

 (timothy), and that it was introduced into the Old World as a culti- 

 vated plant from this country. Dr. Jared Eliot (1685-1763) writes 

 in his Essay on Field Husbandry in New England that a man 

 named Timothy Herd had collected seed of this grass and cultivated 

 it there as early as 1747 and that, from him, it had come to be known 

 as Herd's grass. In a letter to Eliot, dated July 16, 1747, Benjamin 

 Franklin states that Herd grass seed received proved to be mere 

 timothy. This appears to be the earliest record of the name timothy, 

 which supposedly refers to Timothy Hansen, who was responsible 

 for the introduction of this grass into Maryland, Virginia, and the 

 Carolinas. 1 2 This plant is now known all over the world as timothy. 

 The specific name pratense is Latin and refers to the meadow habitat 

 of this species. 



Timothy is now distributed throughout most of North America, 

 as well as in Europe, Asia, and other temperate regions of the 

 world. It is well adapted to cool, humid habitats and does best in 

 the northern half of the United States and southward in the moun- 

 tains. Its southern limit of successful culture practically coincides 

 with the northern limit of cotton culture. 3 This species thrives 

 fairly well along the Alaskan coast, produces satisfactorily, and 

 survives the winters practically up to the Arctic circle. Timothy 

 will grow under a wide diversity of site conditions but grows best 

 on well-drained but moist clay or loam soils. It has become firmly 

 established on many ranges and is now widely distributed through- 

 out the mountains of the west, thriving best at medium elevations 

 but growing successfully up to about 10,500 feet in Colorado. In 

 the range country this grass usually grows in moist meadows, weedy 

 or grassy parks, along stream banks, in moist canyon bottoms, open 

 grassy slopes, woodlands, openings in the timber, and along road- 

 sides and trails. 



This plant has given better all-around results in the artificial 

 reseeding of western mountain range lands than any other species. 

 Experiments 4 have shown that it can be successfully and profitably 

 used in reseeding inland range lands where the soil is moist and the 

 growing season of sufficient duration for seed production. It is 

 also suitable for reseeding cutover, burned-over, and overgrazed 

 mountain ranges on the west coastal slope where the annual precipi- 



* Piper, C. V. FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. Rev., 671 pp., illus. New York. 

 1924. 



2 Stebler, F. G., and Schroter, C. THE BEST FORAGE PLANTS FULLY DESCRIBED AND 

 FIGURED. . . . Transl. by A. N. McAlpine. 171 pp.. illus. London. 1889. 



3 Piper, C. V. IMPORTANT CULTIVATED GRASSES. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bull. 12.~)4. 

 38 pp., illus. 1922. 



4 Forsling, C. L., and Dayton, W. A. ARTIFICIAL RESEEDING o\ WESTERN MOUNTAIN 

 RANGE LANDS. U. S. Dept. Agr. Circ. 178, 48 pp., illus. 1931. 



