TIMOTHY. 77 



ping even in these is to decrease the yields, since pro- 

 ducing seed tells adversely on the vitality of the plants. 

 Growing timothy seed is hard on land. 



Through the medium of timothy seed, many foul 

 weeds have been introduced, hence the importance of 

 getting good pure seed. At every seed warehouse, va- 

 rious grades may be purchased, but good pure seed 

 only should be bought by the farmer; notwithstanding 

 that it will be higher priced than the other grades. It 

 could not be otherwise. But in a majority of instances, 

 where timothy can be grown successfully, the farmer 

 can and ought to gro"\y his own seed. When doing so 

 he simply requires to select a part of a field, usually 

 not more than two or three acres, in which the timothy 

 plants are vigorous and free from weeds. This when 

 ripe can be harvested and threshed as described above 

 and at the same time as the grain is threshed. If per- 

 fectly free from noxious weeds, winnowing such seed 

 further would not even seem much of a necessity. In 

 this way seed could be saved from year to year that 

 would be always fresh and pure. 



Renewing. — The attempt is seldom made to renew 

 timothy meadows which at one time possessed a good 

 stand of plants, except by top dressing them with fer- 

 tilizers. But there are instances in which when the 

 seed is sown, only a partial stand is secured. Some 

 parts of the area sown, as the lower land for instance, 

 may have a good stand, and the higher land an imper- 

 fect stand or even no stand at all, and yet it may be 

 desirable to grow timothy on such areas. This may in 

 some instances be accomplished by sowing seed where 



