220 A Chapter on Lawns. 



your old cumbrous English lawn-mower, of pony or two-men power, as 

 nobody will use them who can obtain '■^Hiirs Patent Lawn-Mower.'" This 

 implement is simple in its structure ; not liable to get out of repair ; can be 

 worked by a boy, who can do as much work as two men with a scythe ; 

 is cheap ; and leaves the ground in as good order as any other machine. 

 Hundreds of these have been sold the past year, and have given perfect 

 satisfaction. One gentleman says, " This lawn-mower has, on trial, far ex- 

 ceeded my expectation. It does the work beautifully, and without exces- 

 sive labor of one man. I have about an acre of lawn, and the mower is 

 now an indispensable article. The turf was a beautiful green all the sea- 

 son, having the tread of a Wilton carpet ; and a casual observer would not 

 have perceived, on the day following clipping, that the grass had ever been 

 cut." The machine leaves the clipping on the surface. Another gentle- 

 man says, " I am so well pleased with it, I would not certainly be without 

 it for three times the cost : first, because it will do the work in one-third 

 the time it can be done with a scythe ; second, because it leaves the lawn 

 so smooth and evenly cut, which cannot be done with a scythe ; third, be- 

 cause the iron roller following the cutter keeps the turf compact and per- 

 fecdy level." 



Now for top-dressing the lawn. Downing recommends a bushel (about 

 seventy-five pounds) of guano and three bushels of ashes to the acre, 

 to be applied in March or April, when the soil needs but little stimulus. 

 I recommend for grass that needs heavy manuring two hundred pounds 

 of guano and four hundred pounds of ground plaster to the acre, to be 

 well incorporated before using, breaking all the lumps, and suffering it to 

 remain a fortnight in some place secure from wet : and apply it the same 

 time as recommended above, and never put it on as late as the last of 

 May. or June, nor during the heat of summer. Rough manure should be 

 applied in autumn, raking off all the coarse, strawy portion in the spring. 

 A gentleman in a neighboring town, before leaving his country residence 

 for the city,. had his lawn coated over with night-soil ; which was such an 

 insufferable nuisance, tliat the neighbors (as well they might) called upon 

 him. to abate it. He had done it without consideration, and was willing to 

 be at any expense to rectify the mistake. He called upon the writer to 

 know what could be done in the case ; who recommended him to cover it 



