26 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. PART I. 



LAWNS. 



When a garden is of sufficient size to allow room for it, nothing 

 is more ornamental than a spacious piece of lawn or grass-plot ; 

 and more especially is the surface of cool green that it presents 

 soothing and refreshing to the eye in the Upper Provinces, 

 when the soil of the country around during the hot months lies 

 all parched and bare. 



The grass principally used for lawns in this country is that 

 called Doob-grass (Cynodon dactylon), a plant of trailing habit, 

 not growing high, and when in vigorous growth of a soft, dark 

 green hue. It thrives where scarcely any other kind will, and 

 delights in the edges of frequented highways. The spot it 

 seems to like especially is where brick and lime rubbish has 

 been thrown and trodden down hard. It will also grow in the 

 poor soil beneath the shade of trees, where other grasses grow 

 but scantily, if at all. When required for lawns, a sufficient 

 quantity may easily be collected from the road-side and waste 

 places. The piece of ground intended for lawn should be well 

 dug, and then made perfectly level and smooth. Drills should 

 then be drawn over it a foot apart, in which little pieces of the 

 roots should be planted out at the distance of half a foot from 

 each other; and the ground afterwards watered occasionally, 

 till the grass has become thoroughly established. In Bengal, 

 further watering will be unnecessary ; but in the Upper Provinces 

 irrigation during the Hot season is indispensable, as otherwise 

 the grass would soon become scorched up and perish. 



A more expeditious and very successful plan of laying down 

 a lawn, sometimes adopted, is to pull up a quantity of grass by 

 the roots, chop it tolerably fine, mix it well in a compost of mud 

 of about the consistency of mortar, and spread this out thinly 

 over the piece of ground where the lawn is required. In a few 

 days the grass will spring up with great regularity over the 

 plot. 



Swampy ground and spots where water lies long after rain 

 are unadapted for Doob-grass. In such localities it soon perishes, 

 and grasses of ranker growth, such as Mootho (Cyperus hexa- 

 stachyus), Kdsh (Saccharum spontaneum), and Ooloo (Imperata 

 cylindrica), usually come up and supply its place. 



