60 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



The more that soils are enriched for timothy, the bel- 

 ter will be the growth that will follow. It is more com- 

 mon, however, to stimulate growth by dressing the plants 

 with a fertilizer than to apply fertilizers to the soil 

 previous to sowing the seed. Farmyard manure is an 

 excellent fertilizer, but when applied on soils intended 

 for timothy, if in the fresh form, the 'results are likely 

 to prove more satisfactory on the whole if it is used when 

 preparing the crop that precedes timothy, since the un- 

 used increment still left in the soil is then easily accessi- 

 ble to the young timothy plants. But reduced farmyard 

 manures may be applied with advantage when preparing 

 the soil for the nurse crop with which the timothy is to 

 be sown ; coarse manures may also be thus applied, where 

 the conditions favor rapid decomposition in the soil 

 and especially when the period of soil preparation covers 

 a considerable length of time. 



Sowing. — The time at which timothy may and ought 

 to be sown will vary much with variations in climatic 

 conditions. It would probably be correct to say that in 

 all places in which it can be grown with a fair measure of 

 success, the two best seasons for sowing it are the early 

 spring and the early autumn. When sown in the early 

 spring a stand is more assured than when sown later, and 

 the same is true of early fall sowing. In all the states 

 northward and in all the provinces of Canada, in which 

 winter rye and winter wheat can be sown with success, 

 timothy may sometimes be sown while the snow still lin- 

 gers. When thus sown, as the snow melts, it comes in 

 contact with the soil while the latter is yet moist, and 

 much of the seed is covered in the little openings on the 



