SEASONABLE HINTS. 



50 bushels per acre, once in thi'ee to five years, till 300 bushels per acre is thoroughly well 

 incorporated in the soil. In addition to the lime, it would be well to sow two bushels of 

 plaster of Paris on each acre early every spring. Plaster is the direct food of the clover 

 family, and is beneficial also to blue grass. 



Another grass is getting to be in great repute in this vicinity for lawns, and this is the 

 English perennial ray grass — not rye grass — that is quite an inferior kind of grass, and it 

 is not perennial. 



After preparing the lawn as recommended by j-ou, sow at the rate of three bushels per 

 acre; mix no other seed whatever with it, otherwise it will be likely to come up in tufts. 

 August and March are the best months in this climate to sow ray grass. It has been cul- 

 tivated for several years as far north as Connecticut, and south as far as the lower part 

 of North Carolina; and when properly sown and cared for, it has given entire satisfaction, 

 even as afield crop. It is in high repute for grazing, and yields almost as great an an- 

 nual burthen as orchard grass. It has rather a coarse stalk and is of a rank growth; 

 but when this comes to be cut often and close, in the manner of lawns, the grass grows 

 finer and Very thick; and forms the most elastic and velvety turf I have ever trod in the 

 United States. It is about ten years since ray grass was first introduced into this neigh- 

 borhood. 



One more word about the treatment of lawns in our hot climate, and I have done. It 

 is best to mow them in the afternoon, and j ust before a shower if possible, [but a lawn cannot 

 be closely mown except when there is some moisture on the grass. Ed.] Irrigate, if you have 

 water, for several evenings after mowing, if the weather be dry. If you cannot irrigate, 

 then scratch the whole surface with a fine tooth harrow, or iron rake, spread a light dress- 

 ing of swamp muck or compost upon it, and always roll hard with an iron roller the 

 morning after mowing. A. B. Allen. 



New- York, April 9, 185L 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



BY AN OLD DIGGER. 



If you wish to raise the earliest vegetables, or get the best growth possible in any an- 

 nual plant, be sure to use well rotted manure. The chemists may gay what they please 

 about the loss of ammonia and the gases, and what they say about the actual waste in 

 letting manure rot before using it, is true enough, doubtless. But setting that aside, prac- 

 tice has told me, time and again, that I can get a crop of peas four or five days earlier than 

 my neighbors, in the same soil, by using manure a year old, and quite _^ne,when they use 

 it almost as fresh as when it first comes from the stable. The fact is, fresh manure is like 

 corned beef and cabbage — very hearty food, but requiring a strong stomach. Annuals of 

 moderate growth, like something easier of digestion. As all old gardeners know this by 

 constant trial, you can no more beat the value of rotted manure out of their beads, than 

 you can make an elder bush bear white berries, by scolding it. 



It is quite wonderful what a passion some men have for what thnj call pruning trees, 

 and what I call murdering them by inches. Only put a knife or saw into their hands, and 

 a tree before them, and you will see that it is only because they were not born Caliphs 

 dad, that their neighbors have any heads left on their shoulders. Gardeners from 

 auld countrie" — especially all such as have served their time behind a wheel-barrow, 



