94 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Jxtne 24, 1861. 

 Mr. Adrian Bergen, of Long Island, in the chair. 



TREATMENT OF LAWNS. 



Mr. Gale read a communication in which he took exception to 

 the method of frequently and closely cutting the grass of the 

 lawns of the Central Park in this city, and carrying off the grass. 



Mr. Carpenter. — In this country we are rather in our infancy 

 in the management of lawns and parks ; but it is a settled prin- 

 ciple in England that the oftener a lawn is shaved the more beau- 

 tiful it becomes. The lawn of Mr. Reed, in Elizabeth, N. J., 

 which is cut once in six days throughout the season, is a most 

 beautiful object. I have been much pleased with the general 

 management of the lawn in the Central Park. I think that the 

 S3''stem of close shaving, which is repeated as often as once a 

 week, will improve and beautify the lawns much more than the 

 old system of mowing. 



Mr. .Robinson. — As to carting away the grass, that is a mere 

 matter of dollars and cents, whether the grass is worth more for 

 mulching than for feed ; because the mulching can be obtained 

 from coarser materials, such as salt hay. It would be w^ell if we 

 could devise some means to produce a lawn in the City Hall Park, 

 where great efibrts have been made thus far without success. I 

 think the fault has been in the manuring. It has been manured 

 with the richest kind of nitrogenized manure, so as to cover the 

 ground two or three inches thick with street manure. But the 

 attempt to make the grass grow is a wretched failure. 



Mr. Carpenter considered the effect upon grass of close cutting 

 to be the same as that upon shrubbery, to cause it to send out an 

 excess of vegetation, branching until the ground becomes com- 

 pletely covered. When the lawn is taken care of in this way no 

 spot of ground is visible. 



Dr. Trimble said that it would not do in this country to imitate 

 England in the management of lawns. It will do in the spring 

 and early summer to shave the grass closely, but when the heat 

 and drought of July and August come, if the grass is cut, the 

 roots will be killed for the want of protection. In England, 

 there is a kind of moss growing between the roots of the grass, 

 keeping the ground green and velvetty, like a carpet, and that 

 moss is destroyed by the drought of August in this country. To 

 make a lawn beautiful it must be cut constantly, but the land 



