374 THE FORMATION OF LAWNS FROM SEED 



the services rendered by worms in fertilising the soil. Darwin's 

 work on earthworms has set that point at rest. But the operations 

 of worms in soils newly sown down for a lawn are an unmitigated 

 nuisance, and the mischief they accomplish will be greater in 

 proportion to the looseness of the soil. Upon an old lawn the 

 cast is thrown up from a well-defined orifice seldom exceeding a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter. On newly made ground the soil 

 becomes loosened for a considerable distance all round, and on this 

 broken earth not a grass seed will germinate. It would be com- 

 paratively unimportant if the casts only appeared at wide in- 

 tervals, but generally hundreds of them may be seen on a pole 

 of ground. The lesson is obvious. The land must be made firm 

 before sowing, and it must be kept firm by the early and frequent 

 use of the roller. 



WATER AND SHADE. When severe and prolonged drought 

 succeeds the sowing, there is a possibility that the seeds may be 

 ' malted.' In spring the soil is generally moist enough to start seed- 

 germs into life, but in continued dry weather growth is arrested, and 

 the fragile shoots wither away. As a rule the watering of newly 

 sown land is to be avoided, but it may become a necessity if the plant 

 is to be saved. A small plot can easily be watered by means of the 

 hose, or even by the water-can fitted with a fine rose. A large area 

 will present greater difficulties especially in the absence of hose, or if 

 water has to be carried a considerable distance. In any case there 

 must be no rude trampling on the soil. Flat boards laid at intervals, 

 and ordinary care, will prevent injury from the traffic. The water must 

 be delivered in a fine spray, and for a sufficient time to save the 

 necessity of a second application. Still, watering is an evil at best, 

 and one means of avoiding it altogether is to cover the entire surface 

 with a thin layer of cocoa-nut fibre, which will screen the soil from 

 burning sunshine, check rapid evaporation, and foster the slender 

 blades of grass as they rise. There is no occasion to remove this 

 slight protection, for it will prove an advantage long after the grass has 

 grown through it. To some extent the fibre is also a defence against 

 the depredations of birds, and if it cannot be adopted some other 

 precaution must be taken to save the seeds. 



BIRD SCARES. Sparrows and several of the finches are partial to 

 grass seeds, and must be kept off until the plant is up. Small meshed 

 nets are, of course, a certain preventive, but except over a very small 

 area this mode of defence is almost out of the question. Strands of 

 cotton are fairly effectual, but perhaps the best cheap bird scare is a 



