38 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
such as sheep manure; but where, on the other hand, the 
application is one of cow or horse manure and soil, the addi- 
tion of sheep manure is unnecessary. It is difficult, how- 
ever, to get cow or horse manure in a sufficiently decomposed 
state to use as a dressing for lawns in the spring. 
After the lawn has been treated as above, it should be 
rolled with a heavy roller, or if this is not possible it should 
be well tamped. The winter frosts have tended to loosen the 
sod and have made the surface very uneven. Raking, dress- 
ing and rolling usually suffice to again put it into good 
condition. 
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the importance of 
completing this spring treatment of the lawn as early as 
possible—surely before the grass becomes green, for in St. 
Louis, at least, successful lawns are monted only when the 
work of preparation is done early. The seed must germinate © 
and the young grass plantlets must become well established 
early in the season in order that the heavy spring rains may 
not be able to dislodge them, and, furthermore, that they 
may be sufficiently advanced in their development to endure 
the hot dry weather of the early summer. Depending upon 
conditions, the following amounts indicate in a general way 
what may be necessary to bring a lawn into proper condition : 
grass seed, 25-50 pounds per acre; humus, manure, or soil, 
3-10 tons per acre; sheep manure, 200 pounds per acre. 
Trees and Shrubbery.—All pruning of trees and shrub- 
bery should certainly be done before the starting of the buds 
in the spring. Trees should be pruned of all dead limbs and 
water sprouts, or suckers. Dead limbs are readily distin- 
guished from living ones by the absence in the former of a 
green layer directly underneath the outermost layer of bark, 
a condition which, at least in young shoots, can readily be 
ascertained by the use of the thumb nail. Water sprouts, or 
suckers, are the small shoots almost invariably produced on 
the larger limbs of trees and frequently also on the trunk 
near the point at which the latter emerges from the soil. All 
of these should be removed. Aside from these general sug- 
gestions, it is almost impossible to give directions which will 
enable one unfamiliar with the general subject of pruning 
to properly prune a tree. Where trees have been properly 
cared for in the past, however, it is very seldom necessary 
to remove limbs over two and one-half to three inches in 
diameter; more severe pruning should never be attempted by 
an amateur. It is true that it has frequently been done in 
St. Louis by men who claimed to be experts, but the hideous 
