PERENNIAL FORAGE GRASSES 



55 



placed in shocks without caps. In a few days it is ready for 

 threshing by the same machinery used for small cereals by 

 changing the sieves and adjusting the concaves. The usual 

 yield of seed per acre is from 400 to 500 pounds. The legal 

 weight per bushel is 45 pounds 

 in the states and 48 pounds in 

 Canada. 



52. Variations. While three or 

 four varieties or forms of tim- 

 othy have been recognized by 

 botanists, and while timothy is 

 known to vary widely in yield, 

 duration, time of blooming, and 

 character of growth, evidently 

 both on account of environ- 

 ment and heredity, as yet no va- 



rieties have been commercially Ti * h >: " and '* 



' Timothy (Phleum pratense^ without and 

 distributed in America. While 



the species as a type is perennial, 



"f 



certain individuals are at best 



only fall annuals, as in the case 



of winter wheat; while Others are Vervain (Verbena hastata): 8. witch 



biennial, the duration evidently ^ L ^ 

 depending on the extent of the dodder (Cuscuta Mfolti)ihe small 

 vegetative multiplication of the figures ^Aft'er Hicks) 

 individual seedling. A variation 

 of three weeks has been observed in the time of blooming. 1 



53. Improvement. Hopkins in 1893 in West Virginia began 

 *the selection of timothy and the propagation of the selected 

 'strains. These strains are now in the possession of the Division 



of Agrostology of the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 In 1903 the Cornell Station obtained timothy seed from 231 



1 Samuel Fraser: Thesis: A Study of Timothy, M. S. degree, Cornell Uni- 

 versity, 1905. 



with the glumes; 2. pepper grass 



(Lepidiu wV <^ w) ', 3 - Mentiiia 



monspehensis; 4. sorrel (Rumex ace- 

 tosella); 5. oxeye daisy (chrysanthe- 



