248 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A universal model may be very difficult to present, for the reasons 

 that not only are there varied tastes and opinions as to varieties of 

 grasses and plants, but also the fact that surroundings and location 

 have much to do with their construction. 



If I should be so egotistical as to mention my own lawn and flower 

 beds, I would like to make the explanatory statement that my wife, who 

 is a passionate admirer of blue-grass lawns, is also very much enamored 

 of Houdans and Plymouth Rocks, associated with just enough turkey 

 to provide nicely for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 



Who could object to a bountiful supply of undoubtedly fresh eggs 

 every day in the year, or who would say that the frisky and tender 

 spring chicken is ever a drug? 



All this you may think has little to do with lawns and flower beds,, 

 but we found that the Houdans and Plymouth Rocks and even the 

 Christmas turkey were more industrious than ourselves in the cultiva- 

 tion of that lawn. It was truly astonishing, the industry displayed by 

 those birds in their determination to assist us in our labor. They plied 

 their feet so vigorously that when they became fatigued by this process 

 they would lie down on their sides and pulverize the soil with their 

 shoulders and wings. Thus we united our labors that spring and sum- 

 mer to make a lawn, only to result in a disgraceful failure. On the 

 return of another season we tried a different plan. We could not decide 

 to sacrifice the innocent fowls, so we resolved to imprison them until 

 the grass and the flowers should get a good start ; so with a new supply 

 of mixed lawn grass a second bountiful sowing was made, and the result 

 was a substantial matted covering of bright green clover. 



We have white clover and red clover, and the children find many 

 stems with four and sometimes five or six leaves. We imagine we can 

 also now and then detect a solitary spear of blue-grass. We procured 

 a lawn mower and ran it down to a nice level, and agree that it is almost 

 as nice as blue-grass; at any rate it is a beautiful green. Occasionally 

 we released the fowls and gave them the privilege of enjoying it for an 

 hour or two. 



Moral : In a race for life a grass lawn will have a prospect for 

 winning if it can have about a year and a half the start of domestic 

 fowls. In this plat we have here and there dotted an evergreen, such 

 as Norway spruce, Siberian arbor vita?, Scotch pine, a trailing juniper 

 and a few flowering shrubs and perpetual roses. Over the porch a few 

 climbing vines of the passion flower, ampe.opsis, coral honeysuckle, 

 and at one corner a clematis Jaekmanii, and at one coruer of the lawn 

 a bed of all colors of mixed verbenas. This is not a model lawn, but it 

 is ours. 



