foragp: and soiling crops 87 



some other cultivated crop. Rye, soy beans or cowpeas may take 

 the place of wheat or oats. 



Seeds. — Timothy seed has such a characteristic appearance 

 that adulteration with other seeds is almost impossible without 

 being easily detected. "WTiile the legal weight is forty-five 

 pounds to the bushel, it may vary from forty-two to fifty pounds. 

 In any sample it will be found that a iiart of the seeds retain 

 their hulls. 



Under good storage conditions seed may retain its vitality 

 for five years, after w^hich it deteriorates rapidly under ordinary 

 conditions. Seed more than two or three years old Avill gen- 

 erally be found to have deteriorated considerably. Good seed 

 should be about ninety-nine per cent pure and have a viability 

 nearly as high, and Avill ordinarily germinate in five or six days. 



Methods of seeding". — A common practice is to sow timothy 

 with the wheat or rye in the fall, adding clover in the late winter 

 or early spring. The timothy seed is sown by means of a grass 

 seeder attachment that scatters the seed either in front or behind 

 the drill hoes, generally in front, which insures a better covering. 

 Sowing timothy with a winter grain crop has a nmnber of advan- 

 tages. It enables the timothy to form well-developed roots 

 before the hot summer weather, and since the winter grains are 

 cut earlier than spring grains there is less competition for water 

 on the part of the former. With both winter and scoring grains 

 it requires but one preparation of seed bed, but with winter 

 grains the seed bed generally has more time to settle, making a 

 better seed bed for grass than is the case with spring grain. 



In much of the timothy-growing region no winter wheat is 

 grown, and the timothy is commonly sown in the spring with 

 oats. This grain shades the ground more and is credited with 

 using more water from the soil than wheat or barley. If, hoAv- 

 ever, oats is used as nurse crop, not more than two to two and 

 one-half bushels per acre should be sown. The grass seedlings 

 will then have a better chance to survive. 



AVhen sown with winter grain timothy is not always success- 

 ful. This is often the case in the southern part of the timothy- 

 growing region where the summers are hot and dry. The more 

 vigorous grain robs the soil of moisture, and after harvest the 

 young timothy plants are destroyed by the sudden exposure to 

 the sun. On fields foul with weeds the timothy ma^^ be crowded 

 out, and if there is not a total failure there is at least a decrease 

 in both quality and quantity of the hay. 



Where failures occur when sown A^ath winter wheat a common 



