THE LAWN. 11 



do ? It is verily a puzzle. And then after all, we cannot 

 hope to get really pure seed of the kind we select at last. 

 We sow it, and with it will spring up some unknown grass 

 or weed that will destroy entirely the effect we have 

 expected. 



Grass sods of some pure, rich-looking, and permanent 

 variety might be used with success, but where are they to 

 be obtained in quantities ? To make a lawn with grass 

 sod would be more expensive than with grass seed, but if 

 selected grass sod could be obtained, it would doubtless 

 produce far better, more enduring and attractive results. 

 In view, however, of the entire lack at present of nurseries 

 or plots of the right kind of sod, we are obliged to fall back 

 on the ordinary grass seeds that can be purchased of repu- 

 table seedsmen at the present time. 



In the first place, when you go to the seedsman do not 

 buy a lawn grass mixture. Do the mixing yourself if there 

 is to be any. It will be cheaper and better. Secondly and 

 lastly, limit yourself to two or three kinds that are likely to 

 grow well in the particular kind of soil you expect to sow. 

 There is a prevailing desire to sow white clover on the lawn. 

 Now I contend that white clover is out of place on the 

 lawn. To me a greensward of red top or Kentucky 

 blue grass is always more attractive than one mottled with 

 white clover. 



Then as to the mixture of grasses, there is, to my mind, 

 a great deal of current error. Why not select a strong, vig- 

 orous variety that grows tolerably thick-set, and sow that 

 only. If you sow twenty other kinds, they will all proba- 

 bly be run out in a few years by this and some other strong- 



