SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 390 



are small and succeed best in mellow and fertile soil. Several species of grasses 

 should be sown, and very thickly, to make a close, green turf : red top or 

 herd grass, blue grass, orchard grass, and a little white Dutch clover. The land 

 should be manured the previous year to sowing the grasses. After digging or 

 plowing, harrow or rake fine, level up all hollows, and roll firmly down. Then 

 sow the grasses, rake fine or harrow, then roll again. The sowing time will be 

 according to climate and latitude. Between New York and Baltimore, say 

 from early March to middle of May, and from early September to early in Oc- 

 tober, and all the fall after that. When grasses and weeds are well up, roll 

 well, and let them all grow until the earliest weeds shoot up flower stalks, then 

 mow down with the scythe or horse mower, and scatter the cuttings evenly over 

 the surface. When they wither, roll again, and then rake all off. On sandy 

 lands the summer mowings should be seldom. On sloping lands and terraces 

 or hanks, the grass should be let grow long in hot, dry weather, unless artificial 

 watering is at hand. 



The lawn should not be weeded the first year, but cut down all weeds when 

 they bloom to prevent them bearing seeds. Weeds may all be taken out in late 

 fall, and more grass seeds sown. Men with table knives can get out a vast 

 number of weeds in a short time. A thorough digging out of weeds, with table 

 knives, will keep the lawn nearly clean. Do it in late fall or early spring. 

 The lawn should be firmly rolled down every spring. It is good to sow some 

 more grass seeds in late fall or early spring, so as to ensure a close turf the next 

 summer. 



Bardyard manure, so fermented and rotted as to kill all seeds of weeds in it, is 

 the best fertilizer. It should be spread equally over the surface in fall or win- 

 ter, as salt is a most excellent fertilizer, when applied at the rate of five to ten 

 bushels to the acre. Marl mixed with plaster of paris is beneficial on sandy 

 lands. Guano, and all the concentrated fertilizers are good, but their effects 

 are different upon different lands. Lime, wood ashes, and stone coal ashes 

 should all be compounded with soil a year before using, and spread over the 

 lawn in fall. — Walter Elder in Gardeners' Monthly. 



WEEPING TREES. 



Wier's cut-leaved maple is one of the most desirable lawn trees we know, 

 and we were not aware of its weeping habit until this season. When we tell 

 our readers that it is nearly as strong a grower as the silver maple, from which 

 it is an accidental seedling, while the branches have the graceful droop of the 

 weeping willow, or the beautiful weeper, the cut-leaved weeping birch, while 

 its leaves are delicately cut and fringed, making as delicate net-work as lace 

 and of a pleasing silvery green — they may imagine what a beautiful lawn tree 

 it must be, as it is a strong grower, perfectly healthy and hardy. We call the 

 attention of all those who wish to embellish their lawns, to this charming tree, 

 which we consider one of the greatest acquisitions to our list of hardy orna- 

 mental trees that we know. Every one who has room for it ought to have it. 

 It buds readily upon the common silver maple {Acer Dasycarjmm). but as the 

 huds are very small, it needs a careful and delicate hand to insert them and 

 carefully tie them. — Coleman's Rural World. 



