THE HOME AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 389 



almost any neighborhood choice trees can be had for the digging, 

 and after they are three or four years planted no labor will be 

 required. That yard is beautiful that has a sufficiency of good 

 shade trees and a well-kept lawn, and can be kept so with very 

 little expense. 



The Lawn. The first point requiring attention in making 

 a lawn is grading. In a majority of cases, in order to save 

 what grass there is, and to avoid the temporary inconvenience 

 of a fresh plowed yard, grading is neglected and the ground left 

 with bumps and hollows. In all cases where old door-yards are 

 in this condition, I would recommend that they be plowed, 

 graded, and re-seeded. Early spring is the best time for this 

 work, because it saves the annoyance of a bare yard, and the 

 mud which will be troublesome all winter. A yard graded the 

 latter part of March, or early April, and properly seeded, will 

 in four weeks present a good appearance, and by midsummer 

 have a fair turf. The grading must be governed by the eleva- 

 tion of the house and the natural slope of the land. It should 

 be such that there will be no depressions to hold water. The 

 front yard should be nearly level, if the land admits of it, 

 and the slope uniform from the point where it begins to the 

 lowest part. 



To make this matter plain we will suppose that the house 

 stands fifty feet from the road, and that the door-yard is two 

 hundred feet wide. The first floor of the house three feet above 

 the level of the yard and six feet above the lowest point where 

 the outlet for the surface water will be. In this case I would 

 grade the front yard so as to give a fall of six inches from the 

 front door to the road which would be ample to carry off the 

 water. For twenty feet on each side of the house I would 

 maintain the same grade, and then would, from this point, in- 

 crease the grade to that necessary to make it uniform to the 

 lowest point. If in grading you are obliged to make fills of a 

 foot or more at some points, it will be necessary to wait a week 

 or two after the fill is made to allow it to settle, and then re- 

 grade, or else the fills will settle and leave your grade imper- 

 fect. If you cut down to the subsoil in places, you should save 



