12 



HORTICULTURE 



July 5, 1919 



Michell's Recleaned Grass Seeds 



For Putting Greens, Fairways, Bunkers and Teeing Spaces, and in fact for every purpose, are immed- 

 iately recognized by authorities to be of a superior quality. 

 Many varieties of grass seeds are short in supply — better cover your wants now. 

 August, September and early October are the right times to sow grass seeds. 



Write for large illustrated catalog and list of satisfied golf club clients. 



MICHELL'S SEED HOUSE, 



S18 MARKET STREET, 

 PHILADELPHIA 



"fallowed" one summer before sowing 

 the grass seed. By that he meant 

 that after plowing, harrowing, raking 

 and smoothing, the land should be left 

 idle. If this be done, in a couple of 

 weeks up will come the crop of surface 

 weeds. Hoe them. By and by. an- 

 other crop. Hoe them, also. Late in 

 the summer there will be another, but 

 very thin this time. Hoe them out, 

 too. And then your ground will be 

 ready for the lawn grass seed, and 

 there will be no kick about the weeds 

 supposed to have come in the grass 

 seed that was sown. 



But the average man or woman 

 can't wait that long. They want to 

 have a green lawn in a month, weeds 

 or no weeds. And we are with them. 

 But don't blame the seedsman for the 

 weeds. They are not in the seed but 

 in the soil. 



Now then, having got your ground 

 well drained, plowed, harrowed and 

 smoothed, with a foot of good top soil, 

 well manured, and all inequalities such 

 as rocks, roots and stones cleared off 

 you are ready for the seed. The 

 seed to use is the best kind of seed 

 that the experience of all the great ex- 

 perimenters from the Hortus Gramin- 

 eus Woburnensis down to Paunce de 

 Laune, Flint, Lawson and Barron 

 can tell us about. 



Something About the Best Grasses. 



Nearly every seedsman says his mix- 

 ture of grass seed for lawns and pleas- 

 ure grounds is the "perfect" mixture, 

 but perfect lawn grass seed for all pur- 

 poses has not yet been found, and 

 never will be found. So when a seeds- 

 man talks that way, he talks in a 

 Pickwickian sense. 



Many good gardeners tell us that a 

 mixture is unnecessary. The Ken- 

 tucky Blue Grass is all that is neces- 

 sary to make a perfect lawn. This is 

 so far true that seedsmen have now 

 come to make this grass (Poa praten- 

 sis) the foundation of their lawn form- 

 ulas. The reasons for adding other 

 varieties to the Poa pratensis are va- 

 rious, one of the principal being that 

 this fine species does not stand our hot 

 summers so well as some others, and 

 also because it does not reach its full 

 development until the third year. Then 

 again, it will not do as well as will its 

 cousin. Poa nemoralis fWood Meadow 

 Grass) under the shade of trees. 



Comes another condition: On an 

 upland where the soil is light, there is 

 nothing better than the Sheep's 

 Fescue, fortified with some of the 

 more tender sorts that can shelter un- 

 der its wing. 



For a tennis-green or golf-course, or 

 for any piece of grass where there is 



much walking over, Crested Dog's Tail 

 and Hard Fescue should always be 

 used in good liberal proportions along 

 with the other sorts. Some species 

 start earlier in the spring than Ken- 

 tucky Blue, and some continue later in 

 the fall. Sweet Vernal is greatly val- 

 ued on account of its early growth. 

 Creeping Bent (Agrostis stoloni fern) 

 is a valuable permanent species, es- 

 pecially where the land is at all In- 

 clined to be wet or fundamentally acid 

 In New England and along the Atlan- 

 tic seaboard this grass is often sown 

 alone to make a lawn, and it is includ- 

 ed in liberal proportions in making up 

 a good Lawn Mixture. 



To make a good putting-green, only 

 two varieties ought to be used: Fes- 

 tuca tenuifolia and Cynosurus crista- 

 tus. 



To make a good grass for shady 

 places, use Poa nemoralis and Festuca 

 rubra as a foundation, then make up 

 the balance with good lawn grass mix- 

 ture. 



To make the outlying links, the 

 cheaper kind of seeds will do. as no 

 fine turn is required. Timothy, 

 Orchard, Red Top. etc., will be all 

 right, and are less expensive. 



For a terrace, use sod, three years 

 old, grown from a good Lawn Grass 

 mixture. 



