dDaintenance 229 



lawn, for instance, grows bare in spots and needs rich 

 soil spread over it and then to be reseeded, and, if the 

 seed does not take on account of dry weather, then 

 seeding again during a favourable spell. Few spots on 

 an estate or in a park need more intelligent care than a 

 lawn. The time apparently never comes when it can 

 be forgotten any more than anything else on the place, 

 although it is perhaps more neglected than almost 

 anything. To mow the lawn every two or three weeks 

 is often all that is done, whereas the weeds and rain will 

 come at various intervals and thus make extra work. 

 If the soil has been properly prepared and the right 

 kind of clean seed used in making the lawn, there should 

 however be little need of weeding. Pruning trees and 

 shrubs may be done during nearly every month in the 

 year, either in the old wood or the new, and there is 

 hardly a time except in the depth of winter when noxious 

 insects do not call for attention. And for each of these 

 various operations, special knowledge and trained skill 

 are needed. It is results obtained in this diligent way 

 that have gained the unrivalled horticultural fame of 

 the Chinese and Japanese. Verily! how do they do it? 

 It is actually uncanny, and yet perhaps after all it is 

 only intelligent maintenance, the skill of which, coming 

 down through generations, is a possible explanation of it. 

 All the processes, however, all the knowledge that 

 goes to the maintenance of a park or estate does not 

 fall within the province of this book devoted chiefly 

 to the discussion of ideas and illustrations. Reference 

 is made in the bibliography to works on special sub- 



