LAWN AND DOCKYARD 



bushels to the annual product, and thus confer a 

 magnificent benefaction on the race. 



Bear in mind that the experiments necessary 

 for the development of new varieties of cereals 

 may be made in a plot of ground a few feet square. 

 There is no better use to which you could put one 

 or two of the plots set aside on your lawn for 

 ornamental plants. The cereal grasses are grace- 

 ful plants, which, properly placed, would consti- 

 tute a pleasing and novel feature of lawn decora- 

 tion. And experiments with them might result in 

 developments vastly surpassing in importance all 

 other possibilities of your flower or vegetable 

 garden. 



It may fairly be assumed, however, that you 

 are interested rather in the preparation of the 

 soil for the lawn and in its care than in the im- 

 provement of the lawn grasses proper, inasmuch 

 as these have already reached an advanced stage 

 of development at the hands of numberless pro- 

 fessional gardeners. 



And as to this aspect of the matter, Mr. Bur- 

 bank cites an experience of his own that is il- 

 luminative, and may well be narrated. It appears 

 that when he first purchased the four-acre plot of 

 ground at Santa Rosa that was afterwards to be- 

 come so famous as the seat of his experimental 

 labors, this land was wet and soggy of soil, and 

 entirely unproductive. It had been the bottom of 

 a pond at some remote period, and the soil re- 

 tained an excess of moisture. Mr. Burbank's first 

 move after purchasing the place was to drain it 



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