41 



Previous to this shallow plowing a dressing of barnyard manure should 

 be spread on the surface and covered. This may be substituted by an 

 application of bone fertilizer of not less than 500 pounds to the acre, 

 harrowed in just before sowing. After sowing, a light harrow should 

 be run over it. followed by a roller to press the seed into the soil, but 

 no rolling should be given to clayey land unless it is thoroughly surface 

 dry at the time. 



The one best grass for a permanent lawn is the blue grass (Poa pra- 

 tensis}, and under favorable conditions of soil and weather no addition 

 is needed. But the seed of this grass is rather slow to vegetate and, if the 

 surface becomes hard and compact before the young plants make their 

 appearance there will be much loss. The best general mixture, after 

 various trials with other kinds and mixtures of grasses, is to mix 2 

 bushels of blue grass, 1 bushel of red top (Agrostisvulgaris), and 1 quart 

 timothy (Phleum pratense) for 1 acre. This is a heavy seeding, but ex- 

 periments show that there is a gain in rapidly securing a thick sod by 

 seeding thus heavily. Some prefer to add about 1 pound of white clover 

 to the above, which may assist in forming a dense lawn, but the best 

 lawns are those in which white clover is not to be found. The practice 

 of sowing oats, barley, or other grains with the grass seeds, under the 

 impression that these latter plants will protect and foster the young 

 grass plants from sun and drought, is altogether wrong and ruinous to 

 a young lawn. It may be asserted that no good lawn was ever pro- 

 duced in one year where graiu crops are sown with the grasses. Yet the 

 practice is continued, and continued disappointments follow. When 

 the mixture of grasses just given is sown in a proper manner about the 

 early part of spring, the grass will be ready for the lawn-mower by the 

 middle of June; after two or three weekly cuttings the lawn will have 

 the thickness and appearance of old sod. But when the oats are sown, 

 they will be cut over once or twice until their stubble dies, and the few 

 weak grass plants which have struggled into existence will succumb to a 

 week of dry, sunny weather ; then weeds take the place of grass, and the 

 lawn will have to be renewed by additional sowings. While it is true 

 that a good lawn can not be produced unless everything has been prop- 

 erly prepared, it is equally true that a good lawn can not be maintained 

 without proper attention to mowing and fertilizing. Lawn-mowing 

 machines are now so cheap and efficient that the cutting of the lawn is 

 merely a mechanical operation, and one requiring but little skill in its 

 performance, and the numerous fine lawns now everywhere to be seen 

 are, in a great degree, due to the introduction of these machines. 



When a lawn becomes thin and the growth of the grass declining in 

 vigor, the best treatment is to apply a heavy dressing of well-rotted 

 stable manure during the latter part of December. 'It is important that 

 manure for this purpose should be well rotted before being used, and 

 as occasion offers during winter it should be broken up and harrowed 

 or raked, so as to distribute it equally over the surface and settle down 



