The first recorded sowing of American timothy seed in England was in 1743, but the event was otherwise without significance since nothing further was heard of this sowing. The stimulation of interest in timothy began with the sowing by Bartholomew Rocque in the late summer of 1763 of the seed received by the London Society of Arts from America. There was during the first years some confusion regarding its vegetative characters, and also in recognizing the difference between the flowering heads of timothy and those of meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis). A hindrance to progress in the use of timothy arose, without doubt, from lack of experience, and lack of suitable implements to provide the fine, firm, clean seed‐bed required. Midsummer sowing may have contributed to failure, for timothy establishes itself best in a moist soil. Timothy seems to have maintained a rather modest place during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The first real progress was made after 1920 when the agronomic potential of the valuable material among our indigenous populations of grasses was appreciated and developed into a number of new cultivars adapted to current need