Suburban Home Grounds. 55 



CHAPTER VII. 



One cultivates a lawn even with great satis- 

 faction; for there is nothing more beautiful 

 than grass or turf in our latitude. The tropics 

 may have their delight but they have not 

 turf; and the world without turf is a dreary 

 desert. CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



|HE joy and delight of every home builder is a good 

 iwn. Without it all efforts at adornment seem 

 futile. The green carpet is the canvas upon which 

 the house, trees, shrubs, and flowers depend for set- 

 ting. How to obtain a good lawn and how to keep it good, re- 

 quires more thought than any other portion of the grounds. A 

 weedy patch, a brown or sunburned spot is so conspicuous as to 

 need immediate treatment and is often hard to cure. How often 

 one sees a lawn dug over and reseeded with but the same poor 

 result! The real secret is to have the conditions right, and 

 the workmanship and materials of the very best. Added to 

 these must be skill and good judgment to secure the results. 



The quality of the soil and the subsoil should be examined, 

 and if there is a deficiency of the requisites for a lawn, the lack 

 should be supplied. Cold, soggy, wet land must be improved 

 by subdraining, and ledgy land by blasting away the ledge to at 

 least 3 feet below the proposed new surface, or the ledge may be 

 filled over to get the proper depth of soil. A moist soil is the 

 best for a lawn with a slight mixture of clay or a clay subsoil 

 which retains a certain amount of moisture yet is not wet. 

 Clay may be added to very sandy soil, or sand to very heavy, 

 stiff, clayey soil to get the proper conditions. If the soil is 

 sour, air slaked lime can be used to correct the acidity. It 

 is often thought that the use of manure or fertilizer is a need- 

 less expense because it is buried in the ground and nothing can 



