APRIL. 165 



peck of white clover. To this may be added, on extensive 

 lawns, lialf a bushel per acie of perennial rye grass. 



Pay no heed to the advice of old cultivators, who may tell 

 you to plant oats or barley, for the purpose of shading the 

 young grass till it gets strong enough to take care of itself! 

 but sow the pure seed and nothing else. Choose a still moist 

 day to put the seed into the ground ; distribute it over the sur- 

 face as evenly as possible, and finish with a good rolling. The 

 frequent showers of April and May, if sown now, or the dews 

 and rains of August and September, if sown then, will soon 

 bring up the tender blades, which will directly form a carpet 

 of the freshest green, and, probably, early in June, it will be 

 ready for the mower to show his skill in cutting. 



But how shall this be done ? Not by any means with the 

 common scythe. This Avill never answer ; the most skilful 

 workman would fail to do justice to a lawn with such an article. 

 It cannot be done with anything short of an " English lawn 

 scythe," until our Yankee mechanics make as good or a better 

 one, of the same pattern : these have a broad blade, and it 

 should be set so as to lie flat upon the surface. It will then 

 shave the grass as smoothly and neatly, if held by a skilful 

 man, as a carpet. In England, machines have been invented, 

 for mowing lawns, and some of them have been imported 

 by gentlemen in our vicinity. We have seen them worked 

 by our gardeners, and when the lawns are rightly managed, 

 they save a great deal of labor. At Dalkeith, in Scotland, 

 Mr. Mcintosh thinks he saves the labor of twelve men by 

 using one of these machines. But for places of moderate 

 extent the scythe will answer. 



Thus we have shown how a good lawn should be made and 

 planted. The real beauty of it, however, depends mostly on 

 its after-management ; and the important points are, frequent 

 mowing, frequent sweeping, and frequent rolling ; without 

 these, the best made lawn will soon become nothing more 

 than a common pasture. 



First, mowing. This should be done once a fortnight 

 at the outside, and if once in ten days, the better ; the latter 

 being the average time in England. And as grasses grow 



