LIFE HISTORY OF TIMOTHY 
15 
Table 6. — Effect of a thin and of a dense stand of plants vn a timothy meadow 
on the proportion of fertile and sterile shoots 
Plat 
No. 
Number of 
plants in 
square-yard 
area 
(counted 
May 4 to 
13, 1916) 
Percentage of 
shoots, July, 1916 
Stand 
Fertile 
Sterile 
II 
1,004 
991 
1,004 
34 
42 
52 
66 
58 
48 
1,000 
43 
57 
1 '• 
325 
316 
46 
60 
66 
54 
40 
[ 3 i 383 
34 
Average . _. .. .. __ . _■ . . . . 
341 
57 
43 
The data in Table 6 show that when part of the timothy plants 
were removed in the spring, so that the average number per square 
yard was reduced from 1,000 to 341, the result was that 57 per cent 
of the shoots in the thinned areas produced heads, while but 43 
per cent of the total number of shoots in the areas where none of 
the plants were removed produced heads. 
Additional information in regard to the relation of the space 
which is available to timothy plants for development to the propor- 
tion of fertile and sterile shoots was obtained in 1916 from records 
of the number of shoots of each type in a row plat of ordinary 
timothy. The rows in the series of plats in which these plants were 
growing were 3.3 feet apart, and the plants were 2.5 feet apart in the 
rows. On the 22 plants in this row plat there were 681 fertile shoots 
(99.4 per cent) and only 4 (0.6 per cent) shoots were sterile. 
The evidence which has been presented shows clearly that when 
timothy plants have ample space for growth, heads develop on a 
larger proportion of the shoots than when the plants are growing 
under more crowded conditions. 
Effect of fertilizers. — In four broadcast plats of ordinary timothy 
seeded in September, 1911, duplicate square-yard areas were marked 
with stakes in 1913. One area was located in the east half and the 
other in the west half of each plat. 
Table 7. — Effect of fertilizers on the number and -percentage of fertile and 
sterile timothy shoots per square yard area; average results from four areas 
not fertilized and from four fertilized areas 
Items of comparison 
Number of shoots 
Percentage of 
shoots 
Fertile 
Sterile 
689 
585 
484 
029 
470 
472 
Total 
Fertile 
Sterile 
Areas not fertilized: 
1913 ... 
242 
253 
88 
306 
507 
118 
931 
838 
572 
935 
977 
590 
26 
30 
33 
52 
20 
74 
1914 
70 
1915 
85 
Areas fertilized in the spring of 1914: 
1913 
67 
1914 
48 
1915 
SO 
