MAINTENANCE 85 



useless to apply the manure on frozen ground, for an ensuing rain or 

 melting of the snow may dissolve and carry away either in solution or 

 suspension most of the fertilizing ingredients. 



If a lawn is not mowed too late in the season and is not cleaned 

 too completely of the mowed grass, it will generally provide its own 

 mulch for the winter very satisfactorily. 



Bone meal alone, especially if not very finely ground, may be used 

 in the late fall at the rate of five hundred pounds an acre, or twelve 

 pounds to 1,000 square feet every year. Bone meal seems to be the 

 best phosphoric acid carrier for lawns. Nitrate of soda is the quickest- 

 acting fertilizer and may be used broadcast in quantities up to five hun- 

 dred pounds an acre each year. This quantity must be divided among 

 two or three separate applications. Both blue grass and clover will 

 be encouraged by the use of air-slaked lime as a winter dressing every 

 four or five years, at the rate of one ton an acre. Chemical fertilizers 

 are best applied in the spring as a top-dressing and about five hundred 

 pounds an acre should be applied. A mixture of 5% nitrogen, 6% avail- 

 able phosphoric acid, and 8% potash will produce good results. Equal 

 parts of finely ground bone meal and sifted wood ashes at the rate of 

 one ton an acre make a good spring top-dressing. Kiln-dried sheep ma- 

 nure may be used at the rate of one ton an acre or fifty pounds to 1,000 

 square feet, with excellent results, with the assurance that it will not 

 bring in weed seeds. It should be applied in early spring for the 

 best results. 



Watering Lawns. A properly prepared lawn will not require much 

 watering unless the season is unusually dry or near-by trees are robbing 

 the grass roots. In any event, a few thorough soakings are much more 

 valuable than many superficial sprinklings. The effect of a good 

 thorough soaking is not only more lasting in itself, but also encourages 

 deep rooting of the grass, which, in turn, tends to remove the necessity 

 for watering and also opens up new stores of plant food to the grass 

 roots. It is better to avoid all spray nozzles and whirligig fountains, 

 for, however handsome the effects they may produce in the sunlight, 

 they do not insure a thorough soaking. It does not matter nearly so 

 much at what time of the day a lawn is wet as it does how thoroughly 

 the watering is done. Watering-done in the middle of a hot, sunny day, 

 however, is made less effective by reason of evaporation. It also in- 

 volves some scorching or cooking of the blades of grass as the sun shines 



