MAKING AND CARE 



cess. The first thing to do is to grade the 

 ground evenly. Most persons prefer a lawn 

 that slopes away from house to road in an 

 almost imperceptible incline of surface. . Such 

 a lawn is easier to make than a level one, be- 

 cause any little departure from a perfectly even 

 surface will be far less noticeable. To secure 

 the necessary slope, earth will have to be filled 

 in near the house if the lot is a comparatively 

 level one. Wherever there has been an exca- 

 vation made for the house-walls or a cellar, 

 there will generally be enough earth near the 

 house to furnish all the filling needed in making 

 the required slope. This soil, which is almost 

 always hard, should be worked over until it is as 

 fine and mellow as possible, for a good lawn 

 cannot be made from a coarse and lumpy soil. 



If the soil is not rich, it should be made so. 

 I would advise the use of bone-meal in liberal 

 quantity in preference to barn-yard fertilizer, 

 because it never introduces the seeds of weeds 

 into the lawn, as manure from the stables is 

 very sure to do. Coarse bone-meal, in the pro- 

 portion of a half pound to each square yard, 

 will give a soil of ordinary quality strength 

 enough to produce an excellent growth of 

 grass. 



