Amounts to be 
sown per acre, 
Mixtures. 
Diseases. 
Distinction 
from Meadow 
foxtail, 
Explanation 
of plate. 
56 
man. A bushel weighs on an average 48 Ibs. Good commercial seed should have 97 °/o 
purity and 90 °/o germination — 87,3 °/o of pure and germinating seed. 
An acre requires, on an average, 16 lbs. of seed containing 87.3 °/o pure and germin- 
ating = nearly 14 lbs. of pure and germinating seed. Being small, it is easily sown by 
the clover-drill. 
Timothy is only sown in mixtures with other grasses and clovers, either for a per- 
manent or temporary ley. It is advantageously used either with Red or Alsike clovers. 
In England, it is customary to use in such mixtures 2—3'/2 lbs. of Timothy seed, per 
acre. For temporary grass-land, 5 to 20 °/o of Timothy is used, according to the nature 
of the soil. For permanent pastures, 10 °/o should not be exceeded, because in the third 
and fourth years, it usually becomes thin. Its deep root system specially fits it for deeply 
ploughed soils; otherwise its requirements are the same as those of other grasses with 
small seeds. The seed should be sown superficially. On damp ground, or moist, stiff, 
soils heavy rolling is advantageous. 
Timothy is at times attacked by a parasitic fungus (Hpicloe typhina, Tul.). This 
fungus covers the sheath of the upper leaf with a thick coat of mycelium. At first this 
coating is greyish white, but later it becomes yellow. Where this disease is common, 
Julius Kuhn recommends early cutting and then depasturing by sheep. 
Timothy and Foxtail are externally very similar, and the similarity has led to great confusion re- 
garding their agricultural properties; this is unfortunate, as Meadow foxtail and Timothy have quite 
different purposes to serve in agriculture. These grasses can most readily be distinguished by their 
spikelets (compare plate VIII, fig. 4 and plate IX, fig. 4). When growing in the field, Foxtail developes 
much earlier than Timothy. 
IX. Meadow foxtail. 
Alopecurus pratensis, L. 
Fig. A. Three spikes in flower, with their culms. 
,, 3B. Base of a plant, shewing the short stolons bearing scales and roots, and the extravaginal 
buds. 
, 4. The spikelet in flower; the 3 stamens, 2 stigmas and an awn protrude from its apex. 
; 2 The same with the glumes and stamens removed, shewing the lower pale surrounding 
the flower, and the almost basal awn, which is at this stage straight. 
, 9. A flower detached, with the stamens cut off, shewing the pistil: there are no lodicules. 
» 4. The false fruit 7. e. a spikelet, shewing the long hair on the keels and lateral ribs, the 
cohesion of the glumes, and the awn now bent, 
» 0» The same with the glumes removed. The caryopsis is seen shining through the mem- 
branous pale. 
6. The caryopsis, side-view. 
7. The same, transverse section, 
,, 8. Diagram of the flat, one-flowered spikelet, The dotted lines indicate cohesion of the glumes, 
9, The ligule, 
,, 40. Transverse section of leaf-blade (afler Lund) shewing the low, broad, flat ribs. 
