LIFE HISTORY OF TIMOTHY 23 
of the heads on these shoots was 3.76 inches. The average length 
of the shoots, including the heads, was 51.63 inches. 
Table 11. — Average length of elongated intemodes of eight fertile timothy 
shoots collected July 15, 1916 
Item 
Inter- 
node No 
Haplocorm. 
Culm 
Length 
Inches 
0.67 
2.50 
5.27 
8.01 
11.73 
19. 67 
LENGTH OF FERTILE TIMOTHY SHOOTS 
The ordinary lengths of fertile timothy shoots growing under 
different conditions are indicated by the data presented in the 
following paragraphs. Although fertile shoots are frequently found 
which are less than 30 inches in length, and although they are some- 
times 60 inches or more long, the more usual range in length is from 
about 36 to 48 inches. 
Shoots of plants growing in a productive soil become longer than 
on plants growing on a poorer soil. They are likely to grow to a 
greater length in new than in older meadows. The lengths of the 
shoots in several timothy meadows of different ages were measured 
on August 6, 1917. In one meadow sown and fertilized in the pre- 
ceding September most of the shoots measured from the base to the 
tip of head ranged from 42 to 48 inches in length ; the average length 
was about 45 inches. A small proportion of the shoots in this 
meadow were 50 inches or more in length. There were also some 
shorter shoots, not over 30 or 33 inches in length, each with a 
comparatively small head. In a meadow in an adjoining field in 
which the second season's crop of timothy was growing the average 
length of the shoots was about 42 inches. In another near-by 
meadow, 3 years old or more, the average length of the shoots was 
about 40 inches. 
The length of the shoots is determined not only by the cultural 
conditions under which the plant has been grown, but also by 
hereditary tendencies. In August, 1917, the length of the longest 
shoot of each one of the plants growing 2.5 feet apart in two culti- 
vated row plats, each of which was 62.5 feet long, was measured. 
These rows were located parallel to each other, 3.2 rods apart, on 
uniform soil, and had received the same cultural treatment. The 
plants in one row had been propagated from the seeds of one original 
plant, and the plants in the second row from the seeds of another 
original plant. In the first row the lengths of the longest shoots 
of the different plants ranged from 38.5 to 47 inches: the average 
length was 42.9 inches. In the second row the longest shoots of the 
different plants varied from 44 to 55.5 inches in length, and the 
average length was 51.8 inches, or 8.9 inches niore than the average 
length of the longest shoot of the different plants in the first row. 
