GRASS AND HAY 19 



meadow, a good top-dressing of stable manure should be applied and 

 evenly spread in the fall. This will protect the roots and cause a 

 much thicker and stronger growth. Timothy is often sown with 

 clover in different proportions, and under some circumstances this 

 is a judicious practice. But the more general practice is to have the 

 Timothy meadows free from other plants, and to sow about 12 

 pounds of seed to the acre. (Special Bui. Dept. Agr. 1889.) 



In the great majority of cases the real cause of the success or 

 failure of the timothy field lies in the treatment it receives after it 

 has been seeded down. As a rule, it is not a difficult matter to get a 

 good stand of grass. The trouble is in so handling the field as to get 

 good returns and still keep the sod in a healthy, growing condition. 

 -(Y. B. 1896.) 



In 1889 seeds of selected stock or plants of timothy were gath- 

 ered and in 1890 a few hundred of these seeds were planted in good 

 soil in Minnesota. Each seed was given more than one square foot 

 of ground in which the resulting plant could spread. In selecting 

 these seeds the effort was to secure a foundation stock of plants with 

 some distinguishing mark, that any improvements which might be 

 made would be on plants easily recognized as different from ordi- 

 nary timothy, of which there is only one species or variety in com- 

 mon use in America. It had been observed that the anthers of 

 timothy at the time it is in the "blue bloom" vary from light straw 

 color to dark blue. Plants representing the two extremes were 

 marked when in bloom and when ripe the seeds were saved, the 

 intention being to fit the colors as the distinguishing marks of two 

 varieties. The rich soil and ample room caused the plants to make 

 unusually strong growth, and a number of them retained the colors 

 sought to be perpetuated. But this rich feeding forced the plants 

 into a much stronger growth than occurs when crowded together in 

 pasture or meadow. When headed out the second year, the plants 

 then being 15 months old, each one had spread by stooling to ten 

 inches or less in diameter, some much more than others. Some had 

 longer heads, were taller, had longer radicle leaves, and were 

 apparently much stronger and more desirable plants than others. 

 Eight of the 324 plants developed some of the spikelets into marked 

 branches. As nearly all the spikes, twenty to fifty, on each plant 

 showing this variation had the branches, it is safe to assume that this 

 feature can be made a fixed character by selection in a few to several 

 years. These branches are useful mainly as a mark to go along with 

 other intrinsic qualities, but they have a direct use in making the 

 yield of seed greater. It would seem easy to continue or fix this char- 

 acteristic by selection, and at the same time select to get plants better 

 adapted to the various purposes for which timothy is grown. Inves- 

 tigators were able from this first generation of plants to choose 

 those having large size, long stem and radicle leaves, great spreading 

 or stooling habit, tall, strong, long, heavy bearing "heads" or spikes. 

 In climates subject to drouth all grasses that do not send out 

 root-stocks underground, but spread only by stooling, do not make 

 a continuous sod, but grow in 'bunches. The hay and pasture is less 



