SCHOOL GROUNDS 199 



and the school - grounds will be practically no 

 smaller for the plantation. In country districts 

 and large grounds, effects like that in Fig. 146 

 can be obtained with little trouble. If there is no 

 money with which to buy shrubs, they can be got 

 from adjacent woods and fields and gardens; and 

 such plants usually thrive best, because they are 

 hardy and well adapted to the region. One week's 

 well directed work in each year, by one man, 

 coupled with donations of plants from private 

 yards, could make every school -yard in the land 

 a little paradise. 



MAKING A LAWN. The first thing to do in mak- 

 ing a lawn is to establish the proper grade. This 

 should be done with the greatest care, from the 

 fact that when a lawn is once made, its level and 

 contour should never be changed. The next im- 

 portant step is to prepare the ground deeply and 

 thoroughly. The permanence of the sod will 

 depend very largely upon the richness and prepa- 

 ration of the soil in the beginning. The soil 

 should be deep and porous, so that the roots will 

 strike far into it, and be enabled thereby to with- 

 stand droughts and cold winters. The best means 

 of deepening the soil, as already explained, is by 

 tile -draining, but it can also be done by the use 

 of the subsoil plow and by trenching. Since 

 the lawn cannot be refitted, however, the subsoil 

 is apt to fall back into a hard-pan in a few years 

 if it has been subsoiled or trenched, whereas a 



