40 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
to a ton per acre may be used, or there are certain advantages 
in applying crushed limestone rock at about double the pro- 
portions employed for air-slaked lime. The rock remains 
available in the soil much longer, and under ordinary cir- 
cumstances gives up a sufficient amount of alkali to main- 
tain the desired condition. Hardwood ashes at the rate of a 
ton to the acre are sometimes used with good effect, as they 
assist materially in correcting the acidity of the soil. Raw 
crushed bone, five hundred pounds or more to the acre, may 
be used in the original preparation for a lawn, and the usual 
combinations of chemical fertilizers are all useful. Stable 
manure is, for light soils, greatly superior to chemical fer- 
tilizers, since it not only ide a sufficient amount of plant 
food, but likewise improves the texture and water-retaining 
capacity of the soil. It should be borne in mind that it is 
impossible to get a soil too good for a lawn, and that there is 
every necessity for taking great pains at first, since the grass 
is to be a permanent crop. 
WHAT SEED TO SOW. 
The ideal grass for a lawn should have a creeping under- 
ground stem with short joints, producing long, narrow leaves 
in abundance, making a close turf. In addition, the color 
should be pleasing and permanent, that is, not changing 
radically through the seasons, and the more drought-resist- 
ant it is, the better. In addition, it must stand repeated cut- 
ting and should be adapted to as large a variety of soils as 
possible. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), not Canadian 
bluegrass (Poa compressa), undoubtedly comes nearer to 
this ideal than any other single grass, and for this reason it 
forms a part of practically all the mixtures used for the pur- 
pose under discussion. Unfortunately, bluegrass does not 
stand well the summers of St. Louis, and it is a fact not gen- 
erally recognized that a good lawn from this grass alone can- 
not be obtained under three or four years. It has been a 
much-debated question whether bluegrass should be sown 
with other grasses or not, but in this locality there can be but 
one answer, namely, that some mixture combining several 
of the standard grasses is far preferable to bluegrass alone. 
It must be admitted at once, however, that there is no such 
thing as a perfect universal lawn mixture. The conditions 
under which grass has to grow in different localities and the 
varying tastes of individuals has resulted in a number of 
formulas being su d which may or may not prove suc- 
cessful when used by different planters. Bluegrass not only 
