104 PHLEUM PRATENSE, L.. TIMOTHY. 



Everyone in town and country knows the grass as soon as he 

 sees it and can distinguish it from all others, hence a leading 

 reason why it is raised, fed, and sold. Consumers buy Timothy 

 and fear to buy anything else, even though it were better, because 

 they do not know what it is. They will buy even if it is dead 

 ripe. 



The same remark applies to a well known and popular grass, 

 perennial rye grass, generally raised in England. After a long 

 time if a grass or fruit becomes well known, and it has good 

 qualities if not the best, people buy it because they know what 

 they are getting. 



In this country Timothy is often sown alone, at the rate of 

 about eleven pounds to the acre. The sowing itsually occurs in 

 autumn with wheat or rye, or in the spring with oats or barley. 

 It is often sown as the only forage crop on moist land or on 

 strong, clay loam, but on lighter land it is usual to sow on some 

 red clover also. If quite sandy, clover without any true grass is 

 generally sown. Timothy is two to four weeks behind red clover 

 in coming Into flower ready for the mower. Among its other 

 good qualities, Timothy seeds very freely, yielding G to 10 or 

 more bushels of cleaned seed to the acre ; and this is easily saved 

 and threshed with a flail or a machine, can be easily cleaned and 

 separated from seeds of weeds, and can be put onto the market 

 in abundance and sold cheaply. It only takes from one to two 

 pecks to sow an acre, and this costs but little. 



While Timothy has many good qualities to recommend it, it 

 has many marked defects. When sown with clover, it makes 

 but a small growth and must be cut young, if the clover is 

 secured in good season. It starts very slowly in spring, is a long 

 time in coming into flower, and after cutting t':e second growth 

 is slow, feeble, and of little consequence, seldom large enough 

 to cut a second time or to afford much pasture. If cut early 

 the tuber at the base of the stalk does not become sufficiently 



