THE LA WN. 



carriage drives and even the foot-paths. The most agreea- 

 ble way of arranging a house and grounds, if convenience will 

 permit it, is to have the drives and walks come in from the 

 highway, merely turning about a small grass plot. With 

 the hall and kitchen and other business parts of the house 

 on this side, it is desirable then to have the library and 

 living rooms open out on the main lawn, and if possible the 

 finest view. You have thus the best part of the home 

 grounds to yourself undisturbed by carriages or undesirable 

 foot passengers. 



Seclusion and the shutting in of the lawn as part of the 

 actual home has always a peculiar charm of its own. I 

 would not, as a rule, emulate the strict exclusiveness of our 

 English brethren who, in so many cases, shut themselves in 

 with great stone walls, but I would fence myself round 

 about in some way. I would surround the home lawns with 

 masses of trees and shrubs, and so dispose the main lawn 

 in connection with the house as to make it my own special 

 and peculiar domain. 



Having plowed, cleaned, and roughly graded the lawn 

 into a comparatively level, gently swelling surface, the next 

 thing is to cover it over with a heavy coat of rich manure, 

 twenty-five, thirty, forty, fifty loads to the acre. Spread it 

 on liberally, all you can get under, provided it is well 

 decomposed. Use thoroughly decayed composted stable 

 manure if you can get it ; if not, bone-dust, wood-ashes, 

 superphosphate of lime, nitrate of ammonia, etc. 



What is required in the manure is plenty of ammonia, 

 then phosphoric acid, lime, soda, potash, and magnesia, etc., 

 but when you use these salts of soda, potash, etc., as con- 



