20 QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



the harrowing the ground should be severely rolled, that the earth and 

 seed may be brought into close contact. Our lawn grass mixture should 

 be sown at the rate of sixty pounds to the acre and rolled down. Sowing 

 in September and October will be found most advantageous in latitudes 

 south of Philadelphia ; in more northerly locations Spring sowing Is most 

 successfully practiced, the work being done in April and May. 



Annual seeds, natural to the soil, are certain to spring up before the 

 young grass becomes established, and an inexperienced person is likely to 

 conclude that the weeds spring from weed seed in the grass seed, but all 

 soils contain weed seeds, and upon tillage they are certain to vegetate. 

 The weeds as they become large enough may be cut down or pulled up ; 

 after the first year their growth will cease. Frequent rolling is advanta- 

 geous in producing a good lawn by solidifying the soil, harassing insects 

 and other vermin, and improving the level of the surface. 



Students of agriculture will find the volume on the " Grasses of North 

 America," by Professor W. J. Beale, of much value in assisting them in 

 this interesting study. 



On all lawns will regularly appear in greater or less numbers a lot of 

 interlopers, such as buttercups, plantains, dandelions, all from seeds 

 natural to the soil. These uninvited guests should always be dug out, 

 otherwise subsequent labor will be increased one hundredfold by their 

 seeding. Lawns may be advantageously dressed with stable manure in 

 December, the long strawy portions being removed in March. 



On those portions of lawns as around the house, where an immediate 

 result in grass efiect is desired, sod may be used. Fair sod can generally 

 be had on roadsides, and if carefully taken up and when laid down accu- 

 rately jointed and solidified, and covered with half an inch of rich com- 

 post, it will at once start off and very soon be as much a fixture as the 

 adjoining trees and shrubs. 



Lawn grass of good quality should produce a fair mat of herbage in 

 from seventy to ninety days. 



Some parties offering lawn grass at a low price are using the so-called 

 Canada Blue Grass, which sometimes contains seeds of Canada Thistle, a 

 pest, and difficult to eradicate. 



Some people, after seeding a piece of land with lawn grass expect 

 to see a green mat in two or three weeks, but in this they are unrea- 

 sonable, as the better varieties of grass are slow to produce effect, and 

 when an eSect is quickly developed it is at the expense of adaptability 

 and permanency. For instance, a fine mat of green color can be had in 

 two weeks from a heavy sowing of white clover, something very effective 

 and pleasing to the eye, but clover is not a grass and is not suitable for 

 lawns, failing to produce that velvet-like efi"ect, the result of the growth 

 of the erect leaves produced by the best grasses, which habit fits them to 

 quickly recover after mowing. 



Manures or fertilizers for lawns may be of many combinations. We 

 recommend to those who prefer to do their own mixing a compound of 



