TIMOTHY 149 



Farm, Virginia, in 1906, this disease completely destroyed 

 some of the selected strains, while others were but slightly 

 affected. None were wholly immune. The relative re- 

 sistance of these plants was much the same in 1908 and 

 in 1909, but in the latter year the rust was far more 

 abundant. Inoculation experiments in the greenhouse 

 showed that all plants could be inoculated, but that there 

 was great difference in the degree to which the fungus 

 developed in different individuals. 



Clark at the Cornell Experiment Station has also 

 recorded the marked variability in the susceptibility of 

 different timothy plants to rust. 



137. Breeding. The first serious attempt made to 

 select the superior individuals from timothy and thus 

 to secure improved strains was by Hopkins, of the West 

 Virginia Experiment Station, in 1893. Among the best 

 of the strains selected by Hopkins were the Stewart, 

 a tall leafy form especially adapted to hay production; 

 the Pasture, the progeny of a plant found surviving in an 

 old, much overgrazed pasture, and conspicuous for the 

 amount of aftermath which it produced ; and the Early 

 or Hopkins variety, which matured two weeks earlier than 

 any other. At the West Virginia station, where these 

 varieties were selected, they were found to be distinctly 

 superior to ordinary mixed timothy. These varieties were 

 secured by the United States Department of Agriculture 

 in 1902, and large quantities of seed of these three varieties 

 were grown. The Early remained nearly pure, as it came 

 to maturity before other varieties of timothy were in 

 bloom. The other two varieties, however, became some- 

 what mixed, but their main characteristics remained 

 evident. These three varieties were tried out on a farm 

 scale in various parts of the United States, but the results 



