276 Practical Farming 



grasses that make better hay, but because the market 

 demands it and the market knows it and does not know 

 other hay to any extent. And to-day thousands of tons 

 of baled timothy hay are shipped to the southern cities 

 from the central west, while the farmers right around 

 there are wasting their land in cotton where they could 

 produce better hay for their home market and get higher 

 prices for it than in any other part of the country. 



Timothy is a grass for a cool climate and a moist clay 

 soil. It is a shallow rooting grass, and soon burns out in 

 a hot climate and warm soil. It is not a good pasture 

 grass, not because animals are not fond of it, for they are, 

 but because of its shallow rooting it is soon destroyed by 

 pasturing. But on suitable soils and in a suitable climate 

 there is no grass that gives heavier crops. While good 

 crops can be grown on strong upland loam soil, the grass 

 does not last so long there as on the moist low lands like 

 river bottoms, which are more naturally adapted to mead- 

 ows. Timothy, from its shallow rooting character and 

 little sod-making, is more exhaustive on the soil than 

 grasses that make a larger root and return more humus- 

 making material to the soil. One of its advantages is that 

 it will wait on the farmer, for while many other grasses 

 get worthless soon after flowering, timothy still has some 

 value when near maturity, though, of course, makes better 

 hay cut at an earlier stage. 



The common practice is to associate it with clover. 

 This of course helps the land, but the timothy being a 

 late grass, is not in shape for mowing till after the clover 

 has long passed its best stage. Some of the earlier grasses 

 are far better to sow with clover if the clover hay is valued. 



