78 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
The outstanding importance of timothy is due 
largely to the fact that, except in the alfalfa regions 
of the West, nearly all our hay is produced in the 
region to which timothy is best adapted. Perhaps 
hay production may be largely confined to the timothy 
region because no other grass has been found capable 
of taking its place in other sections. Certain it is 
that, except in the Far West, hay production and live- 
stock farming are nearly confined to the region of 
timothy, clover, and blue-grass, all of which have 
nearly the same distribution. 
The lack of forage plants and grasses, and, conse- 
quently, of live stock, in the Southern States is prob- 
ably due more to the cotton-plant than to any other 
one cause. Should the cotton boll weevil render 
cotton unprofitable in the South, there is abundant 
reason to believe that plenty of good grasses may be 
grown to make stock-raising profitable south of the 
timothy region. It is an interesting fact, referred to 
earlier in these pages, that nearly all the grass litera- 
ture issued by the experiment stations of this country 
comes from those States that lie either on the border 
of the timothy region or entirely outside of it. In the 
timothy region (where clover and blue-grass also 
abound) the grass question ceased to be a pressing one 
before the experiment stations were established. 
Fig. 17 shows approximately the distribution of 
timothy in this country. This map was constructed 
as follows: On a county map of the United States a 
large dot was placed in each county showing ovér 5,000 
acres of ‘‘other tame grasses’’ (mainly timothy, and 
mixtures in which timothy is the leading constituent), 
