MAKING AND MANAGEMENT OF LAWNS. 151 



wind and sun, and it is the only thing we can recommend 

 when anj-thing has become frosted. The best rules, then, for 

 the preservation of plants in pots are, first, to abstain from 

 watering as much as possible ; second, to give plenty of room ; 

 tliird, to cover from the hot spring sun as carefully as from 

 the vdntev frosts ; fourth, to plunge all pots that have to be 

 exposed to the open air, or to slight covering ; fifth, to avoid 

 opening all houses, pits, and frames, on wet and gloomy days, 

 and generally to take pains to keep all plants as much as 

 possible at rest. A little attention to these rules vnU assist 

 greatly in the preservation of half-hardy and greenliouse 

 plants through very formidable -ranters, and keep them 

 healthy and ready for a sound spring and summer growth. 



MAKIXG AND MANAGEJNiENT OF LAWKS. 



Making a Lawn.— This operation in a garden is very like 

 laying domi a carpet in the house. The space must be dug 

 all over, trodden hard, raked even, and rolled. The turves, if 

 properly cut, should be all of a thickness and all of a size, 

 three feet long, one foot broad, and cut as level and as square 

 as possible, otherwise your work will be trebled. You then 

 unroll your turves and begin by laying the first row end to 

 end, to form the outer edge, and continue the next row by 

 pushmg the tui'ves close up to the first. If you find any very 

 great inequality in a turf, throw it on one side ; you may make 

 yourself a good deal more work by trying to adjust a bad one, 

 for all youi- others must follow. \Vhen the turves are all laid 

 down, you must get a turf-beater to knock down any inequah- 

 ties and make the roots press into the soil. If it be very 

 dry weather, use the water-pot freely after beating, so as to 

 fairly saturate the turves, and when the surface has dried 

 enough to let the roller go over it, give it a good rolling with 

 the heaviest iron roller you have, and if the weather contmues 

 hot, give the grass a second or third watering, for unless this 

 work be done weU, a hot sun might cuiI every turf How- 

 ever, the best season for this work is the autumn ; ever}i;liing 

 works well then ; turf has the benefit of a cooler temperature, 

 and before the winter is over it is firmly rooted and ready for 

 the scythe. 



There is no i)art of the garden that requires more attention 

 than tlie lawn, because there is no department that sooner 



