26 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



When the seed is sown, a light harrow, such as 

 the "Disc Smoothing Harrow," should be again ap- 

 plied, so as to sink the seed two inches or so in the 

 soil, and after that a thorough rolling given, so that the 

 surface is made as smooth and firm as possible. In the 

 latitude of New York, the seed may be sown any time 

 during the months of April and May, and will form a 

 good lawn by July or August if the preparation has been 

 good, or in about one hundred days from the time of sow- 

 ing. If sown in the hot months of June or July, a 

 sprinkling of oats should be sown at the same time, so 

 that the shade given by the oats will protect the young 

 grass from the sun. Lawns are very often sown during 

 the early fall months (September being the best) with ex- 

 cellent results. For small plots, of course, digging, trench- 

 ing and raking must be done instead of plowing, subsoil- 

 ing and harrowing, and the surface after sowing should be 

 patted down with the back of a spade or rolled down with 

 a roller. On sloping banks, it is often necessary to use 

 sod, as the rains wash the soil off before the grass seed 

 has time to germinate. It is sometimes even necessary, 

 in sodding very steep banks, to use wooden pins, eight or 

 ten inches in length, to pin the sods in place, to prevent 

 them from being washed down by excessive rains before 

 the grass roots have had time to fasten in the soil. In 

 small yards, sodding is often done so as to get immediate 

 results ; but in all such cases great care should be taken 

 to see that the sods used are of the proper quality, other- 

 wise it is much better to wait a few months for the lawn 

 seed to produce the lawn. 



TO GET A LAWK ON A SLOPING BANK. 



T'nless under very favorable circumstances, it is ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to get a growth of grass from the seed 

 on a bank sloping at an acgle of oven fifteen degrees, be* 



