300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



the tumble down fences, all the tin cans and heaps of garbage, all the 

 untidy, unpainted and too often unnecessary old out buildings, and will 

 leave the ground free for grass, flowers and sunshine. 



CARE AND KEEPING THE HOME GROUNDS. 



BY MRS. FLORENCE ROSS, SOUTHPORT. 



Before we consider this subject of the care and keeping of the lawn, 

 we will infer that we have a smooth, well-graded lawn, thiclily set with 

 bluegrass, for which to care. It is far easier to malve this inference than 

 to make the lawn. A beautiful lawn requires much intelligent work in 

 its beginning. There must be a perfectly smooth surface, which will 

 admit of the use of the lawnmower. This surface must be fine and mel- 

 low and well fertilized in order that the grass seed, which should be 

 strewn with a liberal hand, may find the best conditions for their growtli. 

 An abundant water supply is very essential duruig the first years of a 

 lawn's development in our uncertain climate. 



This present year is the only one within my observation when gi-ass 

 entered August looking fresh and springlike without an artificial water 

 supply. Inferring, as I said, that we have a lawn free from weeds and 

 thickly set with grass, we must not expect too great results from our 

 labor during the first year or two. 



England is noted for her wonderfully green, velvety lawns. A mill- 

 ionaire from this country approached the head gardener in charge at one 

 of the beautiful manors, hoping to get the secret of his success, 



"I'll give you this," he said, shoving a twenty-dollar bill into the old 

 man's hand, "if you'll tell me how you manage this year." 



"There's no secret at all about it, sir," the old man replied. "You 

 just grows it, and you rolls it and gives it plenty of water." 



"But I do that at home, and my grass doesn't approach this for 

 beauty." 



"You just keep that treatment up for one hundred years," the gar- 

 dener replied, "and you'll have grass like mine." 



Here, where it is every man's ambition to build a new home in a new 

 location, we can not aspire to the perfection of the lawn which has had 

 a hundred years of attention. The grass should be rolled as soon as the 

 ground is in condition in the spring. The lawnmower, with its sack at- 

 tached to catch the clippings, should be run once every week unless the 

 weather is very hot and dry and you have no means of supplying water. 



In order to make the work with the mower a. pleasant task, the lawn 

 should not be bi'oken by numbers of flower beds and clumps of shrub- 



