TIMOTHY 241 



or with wheat or oats or barley, the soil should be 

 fine, mellow and compact. If seeded alone, from 

 12 to 15 pounds are used to the acre, and if seeded 

 with wheat about 10 pounds to the acre, followed 

 with from 5 to 10 pounds of clover the following 

 spring. 



When clover and timothy are mixed the hay is 

 not so valuable if feed markets are catered to, but 

 the farmer always has need for this hay himself. 

 It is good policy to keep this mixed hay for home 

 use and to sell the clear timothy to the feed man 

 who is willing to pay a high price for it, even 

 though he secures a less valuable feed. There 

 seems to be no special rule for cutting. Some cut 

 very early; some very late. The ideal time, as 

 shown by chemical analysis of the crops, is when 

 the blooming period has passed, say when the blooms 

 begin to fall. This gives a nutritious food and it 

 is more appetizing. The yield varies; frequently 

 hay lands in which timothy predominates have been 

 so long in hay that a small yield only is secured, 

 often as little as a half to one ton to the acre. 

 Where good culture is given the meadow lands, 

 especially those in rotations, far better yields are 

 secured, running from 2 to 4 tons to the acre ; often 

 cuttings of timothy and of clover vary from 6 to 8 

 tons to the acre in a single year. If seed is de- 

 sired, let the crop stand until the heads are brown 

 and the seeds fairly ripe. It is then cut with a 

 reaper and the bundles put in shocks. After cur- 

 ing a week or ten days, it is ready for threshing 

 with yields varying from 5 to 15 bushels to the 

 acre, depending on the stand and the vitality of 

 the grass. 



