252 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



to disturb the pipes or dig below them. After treading all over 

 firmly, place on the surface 2 inches of burnt ballast, filling to the 

 level with loam mixed with the good soil you have laid on one 

 side from the surface. If you have no good soil, fill up with loam 

 mixed with coarse gravel, brick rubbish, and burnt ballast. Tread 

 all over again as before, making it level with a spade, pressing in 

 any. lump or stone that appears level with the ground. No rake 

 should be used. You have now 2 feet of trenched earth. Do not 

 dig down deeper in one place than another. A stick cut 2 feet long 

 by the worker's side is the best. He can, with the stick, test his 

 depth from time to time. 



" In laying the turf keep the joints of each piece half-an-inch 

 apart. When it is all laid down pat it gently all over with a 

 turf-beater. It is better to take up the turf that 

 Laying the turf, is a little higher than the rest and take out a 

 little of the soil than to beat it down to the 

 level. Then spread some burnt ballast, ashes from the burnt 

 refuse of the garden, and the top 2 inches of soil from the wood 

 sifted through a half-inch mesh sieve, mixed well together, all over 

 the grass. Move it about until all the joints in the turf are level. 

 Wait for rain, then go over the lawn and take out all weeds. Give 

 another dressing of the soil as before, adding to this a little road 

 grit and old mortar. If no old mortar is available, slaked lime 

 will answer. Move this about until all is level again. In the 

 month of March or the first week in April, if the weather is 

 fine, sow all over the lawn some of the best lawn grass seed. 

 Get some fine Thorn bushes and lace them together in the shape 

 of a fan heavy enough for two men to drag about the lawn 

 in various ways. Roll with a light roller, and keep off the lawn 

 until the grass has grown 3 inches, then cut it with a scythe. 

 Roll with a light roller the first season, and when mowing with 

 the machine see that the knives are not set too close to the 

 ground. 



" Should the ground selected for turf not contain clay, so much 

 the better. Dig holes here and there 2 feet deep in the winter 

 months. If no water lies at the bottom of the holes, this shows 

 it will not want artificial draining; if there is water drain as on 

 heavy soil. In trenching the ground, if the sub-soil be bad, take 

 3 inches of this away, filling up to the level with good soil, to 

 which have been added half-inch crushed bones in the proportion 

 of four tons to the acre, fire brick rubbish and burnt ballast 

 in the same proportions as for the heavy soil. Turf and treat 

 as on heavy soil. If you have a good grass field, take the turf 

 for your lawn, also top spit away, replace with rough soil, and 



