4 BULLETIN 1450, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 1. — Comparison of temperature, sunshine, and precipitation during stated 
periods at Cleveland, Ohio 
Items of comparison 
Mean maximum temperature ...degrees Fahrenheit.. 
Mean minimum temperature do 
Mean temperature do 
Sunshine hours.. 
Total precipitation inches.. 
Dec. 20, 
1918, to Jan. 
13, 1919 
36.4 
24.3 
30.3 
47.6 
0.92 
Jan. 13, to 
Feb. 13, 1919 
39.9 
28.5 
34.2 
150.7 
0.53 
As soon as spring weather becomes favorable, continuous growth 
begins again, and for a time the plant develops in about the same 
way as in the preceding autumn. After a few weeks, or about May 
1 in the latitude of northern Ohio, a decided change occurs. Up to 
this time the nodes which have formed are close together, the inter- 
nodes being too short to be readily distinguished ; the length of this 
part of the stem, which has been named the " proaxis," is usually less 
than half an inch. In late spring, however, the younger internodes 
above it become elongated to form the haplocorm and culm. The 
final length of the entire stem with inflorescence may be 4 or 5 
feet. 
The florets bloom in northern Ohio during late June and early 
July (9, p. 299-309). The seeds mature in late July or early August, 
in a little less than a year after the plant may have begun its growth. 
Timothy shoots with elongated stems and with mature heads on 
which seeds matured have been observed to develop, where soil and 
climate have been favorable for growth, from seed sown in the spring 
of the same season. Their behavior resembled that of annual plants. 
Under natural conditions, however, timothy seeds usually germinate, 
not in the spring, but in late summer or early fall, and seeds are 
produced on the plant in the following season. In ordinary agri- 
cultural practice timothy is not sown in the spring for the purpose 
of producing a crop, either of hay or of seed, in the same season. 
If the life of a timothy plant were ended when it has produced a 
crop of seed it would be classed as a winter annual, like winter wheat 
or rye (28, p. 81). However, after a timothy plant has matured 
seed it continues to produce branches vegetatively by means of buds 
at or near the base of the shoots. It is for this reason that timothy 
is generally classed as a perennial, but it is not a perennial in the 
same sense that a tree or shrub is perennial. In the case of a tree, 
although the small flowering twigs may die back after the fruit has 
matured, the perennial stem or trunk continues growth year after 
year. On a timothy plant there is no truly perennial part; new 
stems, with new roots, develop from buds each season. 
There is not much evidence available to indicate how long a 
timothy plant may continue to grow through the vegetative repro- 
duction of new shoots. Some plants selected at Pullman, Wash., in 
1907, which were transferred to New London, Ohio, in 1910, then to 
North Ridgeville, Ohio, in 1915, are still making a vigorous growth. 
Plants which lack vigor or which are susceptible to rust are likely to 
cease growth whenever conditions become unfavorable, but those 
