60 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



PHLEUM PRATENSE 

 (Timothy, or Meadow Catstait). 



To see this grass in perfection a visit must be paid to the 

 United States, where it is grown alone, and yields amazing 

 crops of hay, three, four, and in one recorded instance six feet 

 high. In the pastures of that country some of our finer 

 meadow grasses are unknown and Timothy is more highly 

 prized than with us. It is supposed to have been introduced 

 into England for agricultural purposes about the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, and is now widely distributed. The plant 

 is perennial and fibrous-rooted, but under certain conditions 

 the root shows a tendency to take a bulbous form. Indeed, 

 the character of the plant varies considerably in different soils 

 and situations. 



Timothy luxuriates in clay districts and on moist soils, and 

 on peat the growth is unsurpassed. This is one of the grasses 

 most certain to grow, and is specially serviceable in the company 

 of Foxtail, because it fills the interval between the first grovd;h 

 and the aftermath of that grass. Another substantial advan- 

 tage is that Timothy attains the height of its productiveness in 

 the first year after being sown, but unless it is properly fed 

 there is a tendency to weakness in the third or fourth year ; 

 and considering the tax which it necessarily makes on the soil, 

 this win occasion no surprise. 



No other grass will bear extremes of heat and cold 

 better than Timothy, and in rigorous winters, which severely 

 test the endurance of other hardy grasses, this will stand 

 the trial uninjured. All cattle eat the herbage greedily, 

 and horses manifest especial fondness for it. Timothy 

 adds materially to the weight of the hay crop, and is not 

 only highly nutritious while young, but the feeding value 

 increases until the seed is formed. If, however, the plant 



