Buildings and Yards. 487 



fore the hot dry weather of summer. Many persons Hke to sow grass 

 seed on a very late snow. It will then be carried into the soil by the melt- 

 ing of the snow. It will need to be raked in, however, if the land cannot 

 be worked soon enough in the spring to allow of such early sowing. 



The seeding should be very heavy, since it is the object to secure very 

 many fine stalks of grass. Blue-grass or June-grass is ordinarily used, and 

 at the rate of as much as three or four bushels per acre. Some persons 

 like white clover in their lawns. If so, one to three quarts to the acre may 

 be sown. It is usually best to' sow the grass seed without grain. How- 

 ever, the June-grass is likely to make a rather poor showing the first year 

 and it may be well, therefore, to sow three to five quarts of timothy to the 

 acre. The timothy will come up quickly, make a green cover for the first 

 year, and will be gradually crowded out by the June-grass. In most cases 

 the weeds will be very abundant the first year, particularly if stable manure 

 was worked into the soil. These weeds should not be pulled, for the pull- 

 ing will destroy the young grass. ]\Iost of them will be annuals and will 

 die out at the end of the first season. The area should be kept mown all 

 summer and this will keep the weeds down. If strong perennial weeds, as 

 docks, come up here and there, they can be pulled at the end of the first 

 year or the second year. It is best to mow the lawn, if possible, with a 

 good lawn mower, since that keeps the weeds down and tends to even up 

 the growth. 



It is unusual that a lawn of any extent " catches " uniformly the first 

 season. One must re-seed the poor spots year after year. There may be 

 very hard and dry places, or those that are densely shaded, on which one 

 can never secure a " catch " by mere seeding. In these cases the area may 

 be covered with sod from an old pasture, cut in thin slices and rammed 

 firmly into the soil. In dense shade it will be impossible to secure a good 

 sward, and some other ground cover may be use;!. 



The lawn should be fertilized from year to year. Thoroughly rotted 

 stable manure may be worked into it in the fall or early in the spring. 

 The common practice of piling raw manure on the lawn is to be dis- 

 couraged. Some good concentrated fertilizer may also be very efifective. 



The common practice of sprinkling lawns has little to commend it. If 

 the lawn needs water, it should be wet thoroughly. This deep wetting 

 encourages deep rooting and enables the plant to withstand the dry 

 weather, whereas a continued light sprinkling of the lawn probably tends 

 to develop a shallow root system. 



The borders of the groups may be marked out on the ground when 

 the grading is done, by the end of a hoe handle. The shrubs should be 

 planted thickly, perhaps not more than two feet apart. They will soon 

 grow together and if the shrul)bcry becomes too thick, some of the speci- 

 mens may be removed. Until the shrubs begin to cover the land, the earth 



