86 



The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



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GRASS LAWNS AND CROQUET GROUNDS. 



AT the present period of the year, when 

 the enjoyments of out-door promenad- 

 ing, bowHng, cricket, croquet, and golf are 

 most generally participated in, on the un- 

 rivalled soft, dry, and cool grassy lawns and 

 playing-fields of Britain, the kinds and qualities 

 of those grasses which form the best surfaces, 

 as well as of the weeds which mar them, 

 form subjects for frequent conversation and 

 comment. Permanency of verdure, fineness 

 or narrowness in the foliage, firmness of tex- 

 ture, slowness as well as uniformity of growth, 

 and persistency of root are all essential pro- 

 perties for good lawn grasses, and at no 

 period of the season are these characteristics 

 more easily seen and judged of than in the 

 present month, when the different kinds have 

 put forth their flower and seed-bearing stems, 

 as they grow in natural exuberance by way- 

 sides and in old pastures. 



Turfing and sowing are the two generally 

 recommended modes of forming grass lawns ; 

 inoculating or transplanting, which may be 

 termed an intermediate mode, has also been 

 recommended, but although applicable in 

 some cases it is seldom practised. For slop- 

 ing terraces, margins, and wherever imme- 

 diate effect is desired, turfing is preferable to 

 sowing, provided good clean natural turf, 

 suitable for the soil and situation, can be pro- 

 cured ; and such turf has also the further ad- 

 vantage of containing a mixture of very service- 

 able plants, such as the vernal sedge (Carex 

 precox), the Luzula campestris, wild thyme, 

 and others, the seeds of which are so difficult 

 to collect as to prevent their being included in 

 seed mixture. Turfing has the objection, 

 however, of being an expensive process, more 

 especially when attended with distant car- 

 riage. Whether turfing, sowing, or inoculating 



be the mode adopted, it is most essentially 

 necessary that the ground be clear of weed seeds 

 and roots; and particularly those of perennial 

 weeds, for unless this be attended to no satis- 

 factory after results need be looked for, al- 

 though the best and cleanest turf may have 

 been selected, and the purest samples of 

 seeds sown. Nor is it only necessary that 

 fine clean turf be fixed upon, but it must 

 further be composed of grasses suitable for, 

 and which will not grow too strong or weedy 

 on the soil where it is to be laid. Thus, if 

 taken from an upland locality, where the 

 common quaking-grass (Briza media), the 

 heath grass (Triodia decumbens), the wavy 

 mountain hair-grass (Aira flexuosa), the 

 sheep's fescue grass (Festuca ovina), and the 

 common bent grass (Agrostis vulgaris), 

 enters largely into its composition, and 

 if such be laid in a city, suburban, 

 or low country situation, the four first will 

 nearly all, if not altogether, die out ; while 

 the last, together with the invariably accom- 

 panying white clover, and others which may 

 have originally been scarcely perceptible, will 

 occupy their places, with an enlarged and 

 consequently coarse growth, supplemented, 

 very likely, with the worst weeds which are 

 peculiar to the locality. And the like results 

 may be expected with the finest of turf, which 

 forms dry seaside pastures or closely carpeted 

 downs. On the other hand, for siich as the 

 before-mentioned situations, no turf will be 

 effective and enduring, unless the hard fescue 

 grass (Festuca duriuscula) and the crested 

 dogstail grass (Cynosurus cristatus) form its 

 principal constituents, associated with the 

 rough-stalked meadow grass (Poa trivialis), 

 and it may be with the yellowish oat grass 

 (Trisetum flavescens), in less profusion, while 



