PLANT BREEDING 175 
166. Selection of desired characters. Of course the practical 
plant breeder would concern. himself only with the characters 
of timothy which affect its value 
for haymaking or for a pasture 
grass. For haymaking he would 
try to get a combination of 
characters which would give 
abundant leaves, stems branch- 
ing freely from the base, and 
heads and seeds large enough 
to insure good reproduction. 
A single plant of a good type 
will yield about five times as 
much hay as one of a poor 
type like that which is shown in 
the upper part of figure 153. 
Fie, 153. Variation in timothy 
The two lower plants are of the same age and from the same seed, growing side 
by side in the field. The one at the left is a dwarf; the one at the right a large 
and desirable type. The one in the upper part of the figure is a dwarf plant with 
very large heads—an undesirable type, from its scanty leafage and few stems. 
Photograph by New York Agricultural Experiment Station 
