98 Timothy Grass. 



for drought- resisting powers, but seeing that very dry 

 seasons would certainly diminish the production from 

 grasses of inferior drought-resisting power, while such 

 seasons would affect but little grasses and plants best 

 able to resist drought, it seems evident that a most 

 decided preference should be given to drought-resisting 

 plants, whether the climate is a dry or a moist one. 

 There is, however, an exception to be made in the 

 case of rough-stalked meadow grass, because, though 

 it does suffer from drought, it recovers rapidly after 

 rain, and also spreads so rapidly that it is valuable 

 for filling up the bottom of a pasture, as I have else- 

 where shown, even in dry and exposed situations. 



I now proceed to make some remarks on the other 

 grasses commonly used for permanent and temporary 

 pastures, and also on the other plants usually associated 

 with them. 



Phleum pratense (timothy), as the reader will re- 

 member, is, by the table I have supplied, 25 per cent, 

 less productive than the first three grasses I have 

 treated of — cocksfoot, tall fescue, and tall oat grass — 

 which may readily be understood when we read in 

 Sinclair that " this grass is very deficient in tiie produce 

 of aftermath, and is slow in growth after being cropped," 

 two very serious defects, which certainly do not seem 

 to be compensated for by the fact that its early spring 

 produce is said by Sinclair to be more nutritive in 

 the proportion of 9 to 8, though the quantity of 

 spring produce was the same in the case of both 

 plants. Timothy is unsuited for dry soils, and does 

 not appear to have the merit of being a drought- 

 resisting plant. It is recommended by Sinclair partly 

 because, as it does not put out its flowering stems till 

 June, it can be fed to a late period of the year 

 without injury to the hay crop. But in this respect 

 it is equalled by cocksfoot, and as that grass is 

 distinctly more productive, and certainly suitable to 

 nearly all soils and situations, and also more drought- 



