366 A YEAR IN AGRICULTURE 



the A, B, C's of landscape gardening. Copy the follov/ing 

 principles into your notebook and learn them well: 



1. An open lawn of greensward should be the main fea- 

 ture of the home grounds. An especially beautiful tree or 

 clump of plants on the open lawn is permissible. 



2. Borders of shrubs in masses, and a backgroun of trees 

 and shrubs in clumps and groups, should furnish the frame 

 for the picture of the home grounds. 



3. Where the place is large enough, walks should curve, 

 and at the corners and ground line of the house curves may 

 be made by plantings of shrubs and herbaceous plants. 



Beginning the work. Study the map of your home 

 grounds as they are, and determine whether it is practicable 

 or desirable to remove any plant or object that stands in vio- 

 lation of the A, B, C principles given above. 



Improving the lawn. It is not the purpose of this project 

 to suggest any elaborate undertaking such as grading, drain- 

 ing, plowing, and remaking old lawns; however, some of 

 these things might be done by high-school boys. 



1. If the project is begun in the fall, a top-dressing of 

 stable manure applied in early winter to be removed in the 

 spring would greatly benefit the lawn. This plan might, 

 however, be objectionable in some cases. 



2. In the spring the lawn will be benefited by the appli- 

 cation of about three hundred pounds of ground bone to the 

 acre. The same amount of nitrate of soda will reinvigorate 

 the grass. 



3. If there are barren or poorly sodded spots on the lawn, 

 the ground may be worked up and re-seeded. Use a mixture 



