64 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



Timothy may be sown by hand with the aid of some 

 hand sowing machine, the grain drill, and sometimes the 

 broadcast seeder. When sown while the snow still lin- 

 gers in the spring, hand sowing is a necessity. It may 

 also be resorted to under all other conditions except when 

 the seed is to be mixed with that of the nurse crop amid 

 which it is to grow. But there are some objections to 

 hand sowing. First, it involves more labor than sowing 

 by some of the other methods named. Especially is this 

 true when the comijarison lies between hand sowing and 

 sowing with a grain drill ; second, the seed can only be 

 sown when the air is reasonably calm and still, other- 

 wise it will fall irregularly. The fact remains, never- 

 theless, that one skilled in hand sowing can sow timothy 

 when quite a breeze is blowing by shaping his course 

 accordingly, and by adjusting the swing of the hand or 

 hands to meet the exigencies of the occasion ; and third, 

 the number of persons relatively who can sow such seed 

 with regularity and evenness is not large and it is prob- 

 ably decreasing. In former years when seeds were all 

 sown by hand, a considerable number of farmers could 

 sow admirably with both hands, but now, and especially 

 in the west, such seed sowers are not numerous. 



If sown with hand machines, the kind must be deter- 

 mined by the sower and the conditions under which the 

 seed is sown. But the "wheel barrow seed sower" is 

 most in favor for such work. Unless when the wind is 

 blowing quite strong it will sow the seed evenly, and at 

 least as quickly as it can be scattered by a person using 

 both hands. Like hand sowing it does not bury the seed. 



Timothy seed is frequently sown with the grain drill. 



