XIV 

 GARDENING EXPEDIENTS 



INGENUITY can nowhere be better exercised 

 than in the garden art. Small ways of im- 

 proving, ingenious methods of doing, often result 

 in benefit quite out of proportion to the amount 

 of effort employed. Let the gardener ever keep 

 his eye open to all that he sees going on about 

 him. A valuable lesson crops out in a least prom- 

 ising spot. The treatment of a bit of turf before 

 the electric power-house in our own town gave 

 me a suggestion of great excellence for mowing. 

 This grass was cut often during spring and early 

 summer, and always twice over whenever the 

 mower was used, first in an easterly and westerly 

 direction, next time north and south; the grass 

 never allowed to grow long enough to form a 

 visible mulch when cut, except in midsummer 

 when such a mulch formed a protection from 

 burning suns. Of all this I took careful note, 

 and our own mowing operations have been car- 

 ried on in similar fashion. Where, however, there 



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