892 



LAWN 



1245 An open area of grass space 



body of bordering plantations which will usually frame 

 the Lawn and the different pictures that will appear in 

 any properly unified scheme of landscape gardening. 

 The art of the designer will display itself in determining 

 the relative sizes of the Lawns and these enclosing or 

 framing plantations. A careful eye must, of course, be 

 given to the individuality of the Lawn itself, which 

 should never be allowed to merge into the neighboring 

 plantations. A like principle applies to all kinds of art 

 — it is fundamental and vital in Its character. The 

 reader may fancy that its application would tend to limit 

 the beauty of landscape gardening by eliminating cer- 

 tain features of natural beauty, such as trees, shrubs 

 and beds of flowers, but, if he will look at an open Lawn 

 with discerning and sympathetic eyes, he will find that 

 the "moving cloud-shadows, waving grass, rich patches 

 of dark and light green, studded with the starry radi- 

 ance of the humble flora of the grass, and the hundred 

 incidents of blazing or subdued color and form that ap- 

 pear on the surface of an open meadow," need no added 

 beauty of tree or shrub to perfect their nearly unap- 

 proachable loveliness. So important does the writer 

 consider the essential and peculiar beauty of the Lawn 

 as distinguished from that of any other part of the 

 home domain, that he always feels inclined to term it 

 t '_ie true focus of the picture, the central point of inter- 

 c^t in any landscape gardening design. 



This being the case, it behooves us always to literally 

 leave no stone unturned or clod of earth untilled anil 

 unfertilized in order to obtain a satisfactory open Lawn. 

 Did the reader ever really see such an one'! Let him an- 

 swer frankly to himself whether he has or has not seen i 

 Lawn which showed no traces of twitch grass and othi i 

 cvrly weeds in July, nor any summer grass and Htc i 

 weeds in August and September, — above all, a Lumi 

 which would stand a protracted drought without artifiti il 

 watering. Very likely he will think it is impossible to 

 make such a Lawn under the conditions of soil and cli 

 mate which each and all of us are likely to believe s]k 

 cially characteristic of the spot of ground on which \m 

 live. Perhaps, on the other hand, he will declare that lu 

 has seen such a Lawn in some remote place, but if \i i 

 question him, ten chances to one we shall find that hi-, 

 observation of this exceptional Lawn is limited— thit li 

 has not wintered and summered near it, or seen it dui 

 ing its periods of "storm and stress." The writer kncm .- 

 one place where such a Lawn can be seen, and he reft i -. 

 to it, not because it is properly a Lawn, for it lacks tin 

 requisite framing plantations; but it is perfect in tht 

 first essential of a good Lawn— it is a piece of perfect 

 Lawn grass, A brief description will show how this 

 standard of excellence was reached. The Lawn consists 

 of small patches of grass turf on a private farm m Man 

 Chester, Conn. Each patch was worked and turned over 

 with various ingeniously contrived hoes, forks and rakes 

 until the last lurking weed was removed that could be 

 found by dint of skill and untiring patience. The soil 

 was that of an old garden, and naturally good. It was 

 tilled in the most thorough manner and not fertilized at 

 all, for fear new weeds be introduced. Then, in this 

 mellow and receptive medium, were set cuttings or joints 

 of the hardiest and most luxuriant varieties of grasses 



which had been discovered by 

 months and even years of keen 

 and intelligent search in the old 

 meadows of both the Old and the 

 Kew World from Austria to Aus- 

 tralia. The result is an elastic 

 firmness, an endurance, depth 

 and richness of the turf which 

 suggests to the trt?ad the deep 

 pile of some Eastern carpet woven 

 in a hand-loom. 



But all can not attain this 

 standard on their Lawns. For 

 those who do not look higher 

 than the ordinary standard — and 

 even this is none too often de- 

 sired, or even understood, by the 

 general public — the following di- 

 rections for Lawn making may be 

 given: 



1. The Lawn should be care- 

 fully graded, either convex, level or concave, in such 

 comparatively long, suave and graceful lines as will ac- 

 cord with the peculiar conformation of the ground ( Pig. 

 1247). 



2. Plow, harrow or spade, and fork the soil of the 

 Lawn to a depth of two feet, if possible, and keep re- 

 moving the stones and burning the gathered rubbish 

 for several weeks, or as long as you can persuade your- 

 self to do it, or pay any one else to do it, with the full 

 assurance that no matter how much you do, you will not 

 be likely to destroy all the weeds and win the very best 

 possible results. 



3. Enrich the soil by a covering of still richer mold. 

 Next to this in efficiency are bone dust, superphos- 

 phate of lime, nitrate of soda, and nitrogenous manures 

 like ground flesh and bone mixed in proportions suited 

 to the special soil, which may vary materially in a dis- 

 tance of a few hundred yards. The usual proportions 

 are one ton to the acre of ordinary artificial fertilizers, 

 such as superphosphate of lime and bone dust, or 15 to 

 25 of well-rotted stable manure. If artificial fertilizers 

 are not available, then take cow manure, sheep manure, 

 or last of all, because it is the most productive of weeds, 

 ordinary stable manure. These natural manures are, 

 after all, the best, save for their weed-bearing qualities. 

 They will need composting with several times their 

 bulk of good soil and evenly spreading and harrowing 

 or raking in throughout the surface of the Lawn. 



4. For turfing, the cleanest grass seed that can be ob- 

 tained at any price will be found the best in the end. 



1246 Ground plan oi a naturt 

 ' show relative importance of la 



I and planting. 



The bulk of this seed should be Kentucky blue-grass or 

 June-grass (Poa pratensis) mixed with red-top or herd's- 

 grass (Agrostis alba, var. vulgaris) . or Agrostis canina, 

 the Rhode Island bent-grass. The advantage of using 

 several kinds of grass is that the first-comers hold po.s- 

 session of the ground against incursions of weeds until 

 the stronger but slower-growing Kentucky blue-grass 



