The Lawn. 197 



THE LAWN. 



The general laying-out of a lawn, and the arrangement of trees and 

 shrubs so as to produce the most striking and pleasing effects, belong to 

 the province of landscape-gardening. They must always be governed very 

 much by local circumstances, and by individual taste in the application of 

 general principles : but the preparation of the land, and the selection of 

 grasses best calculated to. produce certain results, though modified some- 

 what by the character of the soil, will, in general, be the same ; and it is to 

 this branch of the subject, in which I have had some experience, and a 

 somewhat extended observation both in this and other countries, that the 

 reader's attention is just now invited. 



The preparation of the soil for a lawn can hardly be too minute or elab- 

 orate. The object is to produce a fine, velvety, and elastic turf, of uniform 

 surface, free from all coarse herbage, permanent in its character, becoming 

 more and more beautiful, soft, and delicate with age. Good economy, there- 

 fore, dictates that the work should be properly done at the outset, if we would 

 save future expense and disappointment. There are few soils that are 

 well calculated for a lawn that will not be benefited by drainage ; we 

 might say, none : for though an open, porous, gravelly, or sandy soil, so 

 inclined as to carry off the water, or to allow it to pass down to a sufficient 

 depth below the surface, would not require this outlay, such soils are not 

 well adapted to lawns, though necessity may often compel their use ; and a 

 sufficient outlay of another character may overcome the obstacles which 

 they naturally present. 



It is not our object to go into details as to the best modes of draining, 

 or to estimate the expense of this improvement, in this connection. It is a 

 subject of sufficient extent and importance to form a separate article in 

 this Journal, and we trust it will be developed as it certainly describes to 

 be. But we may say, in passing, that tile-drains, laid at sufficient depths, 

 not less than three feet, — and four would be better, — will be found in the 

 end most effective and most economical, even though the expense may 

 seem greater at the outset. 

 The next important step is that of trenching ; for though, in comparatively 



