16 
BULLETIN 1450, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
In the spring of 1914 an application of commercial fertilizer was 
made on one-half of each broadcast plat ; on April 22 a 1-8-2 grade 
of fertilizer was applied at the rate of 640 pounds to the acre; on 
May 19 a mixture composed of equal parts of sodium nitrate and 
of the 1-8-2 grade of fertilizer was applied at the rate of 200 pounds 
to the acre. No fertilizer was applied in 1913 or in 1915. 
Records obtained from these square-yard areas in 1913, 1914, and 
1915 are presented in Table 7. 
Fertilizers applied on a timothy meadow in the spring of 1914 
caused a very marked increase in the same season in the number and 
proportion of fertile shoots per unit of area. The number of sterile 
shoots was somewhat less and the proportion much less in 1914 on 
the fertilized than on the unfertilized areas. The total number of 
shoots per unit of area was increased by the application of fertilizers. 
VARIETAL DIFFERENCES 
In the summer of 1916 the shoots were collected from typical 
duplicate square-yard areas in broadcast plats of 14 F. C. I. selec- 
tions of timothy. 4 Duplicate samples were also collected from each 
of four plats of ordinary timothy. These plats were all located in 
the same series, and had been sown at the same rate, and grown under 
the same cultural conditions. The seed of each F. C. I. selection 
sown in these plats originated two or three generations earlier from 
a single plant. The ordinary timothy was grown from commercial 
seed. 
In the plats of most of these selections there were no marked 
variations in the proportion of fertile and sterile shoots. In 3 of 
the 14 plats of selections, however, very marked variations, which 
are shown in Table 8 and illustrated in Plate 5, Z?, were found. In 
the plats of Nos. 3913 and 3937 there was a much larger number of 
sterile shoots per square yard than in plats of ordinary timothy. In 
the plat of No. 4096 the number of sterile shoots per square yard 
was much less than in either of the two selections already mentioned 
or in the plats of ordinary timothy. 
Table 8.- — Average number per square yard and percentage of fertile and 
sterile timothy shoots in duplicate square-yard areas in each of four pints 
of ordinary timothy and in single plats of F. C. I. Nos. 3913, 3937, am>& 
4096, front data obtained in 1916 
Variety 
Number of shoots per square 
yard 
Percentage of 
shoots 
Fertile 
Sterile 
Total 
Fertile 
Sterile 
460 
401 
398 
415 
516 
959 
947 
125 
976 
1, 360 
1,345 
540 
47 
29 
30 
53 
No. 3913 
71 
No. 3937 
70 
No. 4096 
23 
The tendency to produce large numbers and proportions of short, 
leafy, sterile shoots has been found in F. C. I. No. 3937 in each one 
4 The F. C. I. numbers referred to are in a series used by the Office of Forage Crops of 
the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, for selections of 
timothy and other forage plants. 
