36 PAHMEK'S BOOK OF GRASPS 



PROF. WAY'S ANALYSIS. 



', Green. Dry. 



Water, 57.21 



Albuminoids, 4.86 1 1 .3<j 



Fatty matters, 1.50 3.55 



Heat producing principles, 22.85 53.35 



Woody fibre, 11.32 26.4IJ 



Ash, 2.26 5.28 



100.00 100.00 



These experiments and analyses have no doubt contributed 

 largely to the extended culture of timothy as a hay grass. This 

 grass being easily handled, the hay having a fine appearance and 

 subject to little waste in transportation also serve to render it a 

 favorite for marketing. Analyses showing further that this 

 grass cut when the seeds are fully ripe contains twice as much 

 nutriment as when cut in bloom, this fact also serves to render 

 it more generally popular. But this very fact, while perhaj s 

 fully comprehended by the shrewd farmer, is liable to mislead 

 the purchaser. The increased nutriment is accumulated in the 

 ripe seeds. These the farmer threshes out, ships the hard, woodv 

 stems, and sells the seeds to other farmers for more than his hay 

 brings him. Or if he use such hay at home, it is so difficult to 

 digest that it taxes the powers of the animal and then a large 

 portion of the nutritive matter is lost from the inability of the 

 assimilative organs to appropriate it. 



Timothy is a very destuctive crop in one sense ; it exhausts 

 and impoverishes the soil very rapidly unless heavily manured. 

 Its roots penetrate to little depth, and in two or three years it 

 exhausts the soil near the surface. This may be obviated to a 

 certain degree by growing red clover with it. But this is an un- 

 satisfactory arrangement because the clover is ready to mow 

 long before the timothy. If mowed when the clover is ready, 

 the loss in timothy will be great ; if mowed when the timothy is 

 ready the loss of clover will be greater. 



Yet it makes a very superior hay and if heavily manured, not 

 kept too long on the same land, and specially if fed on the farm 

 and the manure therefrom returned to the soil, no great Iqss or 

 damage will be incurred. I do not regard it, however, as the 

 best or most desirable hay grass for the south. On dry upland 

 the roots become bulbous, it bears drought and grazing badly 

 and should be cut early to obtain the best advantages from it. 

 It succeeds best on moist bottom land, but does not bear gra- 

 zing very well in any situation in the south. But it will give 

 as heavy mowings in the southern States as any where. I 

 have, however, ceased to grow it, although on good land it will 

 yield four tons per acre. But this quantity of timothy hay 

 removes from the soil six hundred pounds or n.ore of potash 



