NEW AND OLD LAWNS. 27 



cause a heavy shower of rain on the sloping bank would 

 run off the fresh soil before the young grass had formed 

 enough roots to mat it sufficiently to hold it in place. 

 To remedy this, the following plan will be found to be 

 most effective: To an area of twenty by fifteen feet 

 300 square feet or in that proportion, be the area large 

 or small, take two quarts of lawn grass seed and mix it 

 with four bushels of rather stiff soil, to which add two 

 bushels of cow-manure. Mix the whole with water to 

 the consistency of thin mortar. This mixture is to be 

 spread on the sloping bank, first having scratched the 

 surface of the bank with a rake. It should be applied as 

 thinly as will make a smooth and even surface in short, 

 just as plaster is spread on a- wall. The grass seed will 

 rapidly start and quickly make a sod of the richest green, 

 its smooth, hard surface preventing its being furrowed 

 out by the rains. It will be necessary, until the grass 

 has fully covered the surface, to keep the plastered bank 

 covered with hay or straw to prevent the plaster from 

 drying or cracking. If the weather is dry a watering will 

 hasten its growth ; if sown at a season when the temper- 

 ature will average seventy degrees, a green sward will be 

 obtained in fifteen days. By this method, using orchard 

 or other strong growing grasses, no cheaper plan could be 

 adopted to keep up railroad or other embankments. 



As a guide for the proper quantity of seed required to 

 form a perfect lawn (sown in the usual way, after the 

 ground has been properly prepared, as already described), 

 we may state that one quart of lawn grass seed is suf- 

 ficient to sow an area of twenty feet by fifteen feet 300 

 square feet or to cover an acre, four bushels will be re- 

 quired. It should be borne in mind that, in order to pro- 

 duce the best results, grass seed for lawns should be sown 

 twice as thickly as if sown for hay. In fact, if very rapid 

 results are wanted, a lawn will be much quicker obtained 

 by using three times more seed per acre. In a lawn of about 



