112 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



have, as I said at the beginning, a good solid, continuous sod, and the 

 dandelions have given up the job of trying to crowd into it. 



Tliis shows that blue grass given a good chance is more than a 

 match for dandelions and also for crab grass. Last fall I looked 

 over my little lawn and tried to find some crab grass specimens. Here 

 and there I found a weakly little plant whith looked as though it 

 v/as in the last stages of decline. I am sure that any one who is 

 "Willing to treat his lawn in this way need not be troubled with either 

 of these two pests. 



The fact is that blue grass is itself a more tenacious plant than 

 either the dandelion or the crab grass. The trouble is that we ordi- 

 narily cut our blue grass so near to the ground that it is almost 

 killed out by the process. The dandelions on the other hand are not 

 injured by the close cutting so our treatment is one that favors the 

 pests and injures the blue grass itself_ Crab grass is also favored by 

 our close cuttings. Any one looking closely at a crab grass plant 

 will notice that many of the leaves run out horizontally and are not 

 touched by the mower, wiiereas, in the blue grass, all the leaves ar3 

 cut away by close cutting. 



Another thing which I wish to say is that we need a better lawn 

 mower than we now have or rather one that is better for our climate 

 tlian these that we now are able to buy. We need a mower which will cut 

 as high as three or four inches if necessary while the common mowers 

 that are for sale do not cut more than from a half to an inch abovj 

 the ground. Many years ago on the University campus Mr. Had- 

 kmson, whom many of you know, tried to modify some of the ordi- 

 nary lawn mowers so as to make them cut higher, but he fdund 

 very great difficulty in doing so and had to give it up. We need a 

 mower that will cut as high as we want. I should like to have one 

 that would cut evenly at a height of four inches if I desired to do 

 so at any particular time. It might then be made to cut lower but 

 nobody in this climate ought to think of cutting his lawn as close to 

 the ground as we commonly do. It is a botanical and horticultural 

 ein to treat decent blue grass plants in this way. 



There is one lawn mower offered for sale which does cut high 

 but the thing runs so heavily that it is difficult to get anybody to 

 tvillingly run the machine. We had one on the University campus 

 and tried to give it a fair trial, but the workman found that it 

 ran so heavily that really one wished to have a mule to pull it. I 

 have one of my own, and I started in very enthusiastically to m-e 

 ir, but I find that it is nearly as hard to push around as a common 

 field mowing machine. We need to urge the makers of lawn mowers 

 to have some made which will cut high as I have said. 



Before I stop I wish to add one more statement and that is, that 

 in addition to all this that I have said as to the treatment of my lawn, I 

 do not rake off the leaves when they fall from the trees. If they pile 



