212 MARKET GARDEN'IXG. 



harassing insects and other vermin, and improving the 

 level of the surface. On all lawns will regularly aj^pear, 

 in greater or less numbers, certain interlopers, such as 

 Buttercups, Plantains, Dandelions, all from seeds nat- 

 ural to the soil. These uninvited guests should always 

 be dug out, otherwise subsequent labor will be increased 

 one hundred fold by their seeding. Lawns may be 

 advantageously dressed with stable manure in December, 

 the long strawy portions being removed in March. On 

 those portions of lawns, as around the house, where an 

 immediate result in grass effect is desired, sod may be 

 used. Fair sod can generally be had on roadsides, and 

 if carefully taken up, and when laid down accurately 

 jointed and solidified and covered with half an inch of 

 rich compost, it will at once start off, and very soon be 

 as much a fixture as the adjoining trees and shrubs. 

 Lawn grass of good quality should produce a fair mat of 

 herbage in from seventy to ninety days. Some persons 

 offering lawn grass at a low price are using the so-called 

 Canada Blue grass, which is not only worthless, but a 

 pest, and difficult to eradicate. 



Some people, after seeding a piece of land with lawn 

 grass, expect to see a green mat in two or three wrecks, 

 but in this they are mistaken, as the better varieties 

 of grass are slow^ to produce effect, and when an effect is 

 quickly develojoed, it is at the expense of adaptability 

 and permanency. For instance, a fine mat of green color 

 can be had in two weeks from a heavy sowing of White 

 Clover, something very effective and pleasing to the eye, 

 but clover is not a grass, and is not suitable for lawns, 

 failing to produce that velvet-like effect, the result of 

 the growth of the erect leaves produced by the best 

 grasses, which habit fits them to quickly recover after 

 mowing. Manures or fertilizers for lawns may be of 

 many combinations. We recommend, to those who pre- 

 fer to do their own mixing, a compound of three hun- 



