LAWNS 59 



remembering that it cannot be pounded too hard. After being laid, 

 sod must be cared for carefully throughout the summer. 



LAWNS FOR THE SOUTH 



SOIL AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. The extreme heat and the long 

 dry spells during the summer months throughout the southern states 

 make it inadvisable to try to establish a turf similar to the turf of the 

 northern lawns, composed mostly of Kentucky blue grass, redtop, 

 clovers, and bents. These grasses, when used in the south for a lawn 

 turf, will completely burn out during the summer months unless an 

 abnormal amount of labour is employed to protect them by excessive 

 waterings. While in the northern section of the country lawns in 

 general are developed on good loam or topsoil, the soil conditions of the 

 south are somewhat different. The soil throughout the south, es- 

 pecially in Florida, is generally known as yellow or clay sand on which 

 lawns can be developed with the least difficulty, and the white sand 

 which contains little or no plant food and on which no satisfactory 

 lawn can be developed without the addition of a considerable quantity 

 of muck. The "topsoil" sand, so-called, often possesses a considerable 

 quantity of food matter; but the ease with which water drains from it 

 combined with the heat of summer will cause the northern types of 

 grasses to burn out and also will kill many of the southern types of 

 grasses. 



To one who has been accustomed to the sharp line of differentia- 

 tion between the topsoils and subsoils of the north the problem of 

 drawing a definite line between the topsoil and subsoil under the condi- 

 tions of the far south is somewhat puzzling. As a matter of fact, on all 

 soils, with the exception of a good type of muck soil coming from the 

 swampy areas and the hammock land, no good lawn can be developed 

 without the addition of considerable fertilizer. 



In the north the value of a- lawn continues only during the growing 

 season, from April until October. In the south, especially through- 

 out the section visited by many of the northern tourists, temperature 

 conditions are favourable for the growing of a lawn throughout the 

 entire winter. It is therefore desirable to have types of grasses 

 for the development of lawn areas both during the winter months and 

 the summer months. The excessive cost of maintaining a good turf 

 on lawn areas during the hot and dry summer months has discouraged 

 the development of extensive lawn areas as seen in the northern states, 



