Food for it must not be overlooked that available plant-food 



at the right time implies that there shall be sufficient 



I0 4 moisture present in the soil to carry the plant-food into 

 the roots of the plants in a soluble form; and just in 

 proportion as we fail to have a sufficient supply of 

 moisture present when needed, we render our supply 

 of plant-food unavailable as far as plant growth is con- 

 cerned. Thus, it is well known that very frequently 

 the limiting factor in the growth of plants is a lack of 

 sufficient moisture in the soil at a critical time rather 

 than a deficiency of actual plant-food in the soil. 



For this reason it is best to select those portions of 

 the farm for growing timothy, in which the soil is rather 

 heavy and retentive of moisture. When there is a 

 supply of stable manure available for use in hay grow- 

 ing, it should, whenever possible, be plowed under or 

 otherwise worked into the soil before seeding, and not 

 be used as a top-dressing on meadows already seeded, 

 for the reason that the chief value of stable manure is 

 that it adds large quantities of humus-making material 

 ' to our soils, and the soils need their humus in them and 

 not on them. For similar reasons stable manure should 

 be applied to those soils most deficient in humus and not 

 to the muck lands and those that are naturally moist. 



Preparing Land. 



The river-bottom lands, because of their silt forma- 

 tion and the added fertility which they receive in their 

 annual overflow, together with their abundant supply of 

 moisture during the entire season, are able to produce 

 the largest crops of timothy, at the lowest cost per ton, 

 but these soils are usually very foul with quack, sedges 

 and wild grasses, which must be largely eradicated, in 

 order to get a stand of clean timothy. 



Where there are stumps or rocks that would inter- 

 fere with the operations of haying machinery, it is 

 advisable to remove them wherever possible, and it 

 was found that the judicious use of dynamite effected a 

 great saving in the time and expense of this operation. 



After plowing, the land should be rolled and then 

 thoroughly worked every week or ten days up to seeding 



