244 The Farmstead 



come in again. Annual weeds, as pigweeds and 

 ragweed, can usually be crowded out by merely 

 securing a heavier sod. A little clover seed will 

 often be a good addition, for it supplies nitro- 

 gen and has an excellent mechanical effect on 

 the soil. 



The ideal time to prepare the land is in the 

 fall, before the heavy rains come. Then sow in 

 the fall, and again in early spring on a late 

 snow. However, the work may be done in the 

 spring, but the danger is that it will be put off 

 so long that the young grass will not become 

 established before the dry, hot weather comes. 



The best lawn grass for New York is June- 

 grass, or blue-grass. Seedsmen know it as Poa 

 pratensis. It weighs but 14 pounds to the 

 bushel. Not less than three bushels should be 

 sown to the acre. We want many very small 

 stems of grass, not a few large ones; for we 

 are making a lawn, not a meadow. 



Do not sow grain with the grass seed. The 

 June- grass grows slowly at first, however, and 

 therefore it is a good plan to sow timothy with 

 it, at the rate of two or three quarts to the 

 acre. The timothy comes up quickly and makes 

 a green; and the June -grass will crowd it out in 

 a year or two. If the land is hard and inclined 

 to be too dry, some kind of clover will greatly 

 assist the June -grass. Red clover is too large 



