0n utlfne of ttie CSfarTien. 39 



unfrequently the case. Jealous guard should be 

 kept, when sewer or other excavations are made 

 at any time, that the subsoil be not left upon the 

 surface, or dry grass patches will invariably show 

 themselves with the first hot weather. 



With what grasses should the turf be formed ? 

 This has been answered a great many times in 

 a great many ways. Assuming that the sower 

 knows precisely what kind of seed he would sow, 

 the difficulty arises of procuring pure seeds of 

 the species desired ; the only sure way is to have 

 the seeds tested by an expert. I quote two au- 

 thorities on the best grasses for the lawn. 



W. J. Beal : " Two sorts of fine Agrostis are 

 sold under the trade name of Rhode Island bent, 

 and, as trade goes, we may consider ourselves 

 lucky if we get even the coarser one. The finest, 

 a little the finest Agrostis canina is a rather 

 rare, valuable, and elegant little grass, which 

 should be much better known by grass farmers 

 as well as gardeners than it is. The grass usu- 

 ally sold as Rhode Island bent is Agrostis vul- 

 garis, the smaller red-top of the East and of 

 Europe. This makes an excellent lawn. Agros- 

 tis canina has a short, slender, projecting awn 

 from one of the glumes ; Agrostis vulgaris lacks 

 this projecting awn. In neither case have we 

 in mind what Michigan and New York people 



