254 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



authorities as to its nativity. The point was only recently cleared 

 up and the true origin of this grain established in Manchuria, 

 all of which tallies well with the fact that it was apparently 

 unknown to the prehistoric people either of Europe or of Asia. 



Timothy (Phleum pratense). This plant, so familiar to farmers 

 as the great hay grass, is the same as the herd's grass of New 

 England. It is native in Europe, as the small and related Phleum 

 alpiniim, or mountain timothy, is native to the higher latitudes 

 and the upper levels of the northern Appalachian Mountains. 



This great hay x grass is at best only semidomesticated, for it 

 has never been systematically " improved," as have wheat, corn, 

 and almost all the grain crops, so that only one variety exists. 



Blue grass (Poa pratensis) (Kentucky blue grass, June grass, 

 spear grass, etc.), like timothy, is raised in pretty much its orig- 

 inal condition. It is native throughout the hilly lands of east- 

 ern United States from Pennsylvania westward, whence it has 

 crept as far west as Iowa and Kansas and as far south as Ten- 

 nessee, below which it does not seem to thrive. Like timothy it 

 has never been improved and exists in but one variety, though it 

 is very variable and there are more than eighty related species. 



Redtop (Agrostis vulgaris), often called bent grass, is another 

 wildling among the grasses, and some of the best redtop 

 meadows are self -seeded. Most of the redtop seed of the world 

 is produced in three or four counties of southern Illinois, show- 

 ing that it is only fairly coming into domestication. It grows 

 native in southern United States, over widely scattered regions 

 both high and low, but only in the latter does it make growth 

 enough to be of value. 



1 Timothy is unsuited for pasture because it grows a little bulb just under 

 ground. If pastured when young, this little bulb will not form, in which case 

 the sod will not endure ; and if pastured after haying, the stock will soon learn 

 to pull up and eat this bulb. This is what causes many farmers to wonder why 

 their cattle thrived so well on stubble pasture in dry weather, when grass does 

 not grow. It is also the reason why the meadow next year is a disappoint- 

 ment; the plants have been pulled up and killed. Timothy should not be 

 pastured when it has been recently mowed, that is, stock should not be turned 

 upon timothy meadows immediately after haying. 



