GRASSES , 203 



Timothy is not adapted to swamp lands. The reason 

 for the name cat's -tail grass is sufficiently obvious 

 from the appearance of the head or spike. 



Nowhere in the world is timothy so well and favor- 

 ably known as in America. It is pre-eminently the 

 hay plant of the grass family in the United States. 

 No other plant in the grass family compares with it 

 in extent of production for hay. North of the Gulf 

 states it is almost exclusively the hay of commerce in 

 the eastern half of the United States. Bed top and 

 clover hay is of course, sold to some extent, but the 

 amount is small as compared with timothy. 



The great popularity of timothy as a hay crop is 

 due to the very satisfactory reason that it produces 

 an abundance of hay of good quality over a large 

 territory, and on a considerable variety of soils. It 

 is easily and cheaply grown and the hay can be har- 

 vested cheaply and with comparatively small risk to 

 quality. The fact that it can usually be put into the 

 bai'n or stack so soon after it is cut makes it possible 

 to handle it with a minimum amount of labor, and 

 decreases the risk of having the hay spoiled during 

 inclement weather. 



It takes from nine to fifteen pounds of timothy 

 seed to sow an acre, while with most of the other 

 grasses grown for hay from thirty to forty pounds are 

 required with present method of seeding. As timothy 

 often produces from six to ten bushels of seed per 

 acre, the price per bushel is moderate. The price of 

 a bushel of timothy and a bushel of orchard grass 

 seed is about the same, say $1.50 per bushel. One- 

 third of a bushel, or fifteen pounds of timothy, would 



