AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



gravel and clay, which when exposed to the sun 

 became very firm and hard, making with its 

 foundation of stone a most excellent road. 



It is said that it takes two hundred years of 

 patient care to produce a perfect lawn, and judg- 

 ing from the slow improvement of my own sod, 

 I am almost inclined to believe it. When you 

 attempt to cultivate a piece of land such as that on 

 the island, you will find that much of what you 

 thought was solid earth is in fact largely com- 

 posed of scurf, half-decayed wood, old tree-trunks, 

 and the like. As these decay still further, the 

 surface falls off into hollows, and you are tempted 

 to dig up once more the entire plot, but do not 

 do so. You would lose thereby the effect of 

 work already done, and go back to where you 

 were years before. It is much better to cart 

 fresh earth to the spot, and fill in the hollows, 

 sowing grass-seed on the top. A very consider- 

 able portion of our lawn is in bad condition owing 

 to the quality of the seed which was sown. At 

 first, being ignorant, I presumed the best seed 

 for the lawn must be the mixed lawn-grass seed of 

 the dealers, which they praised, so highly. When 

 the seed developed into plants, I found to my 

 horror that I had nearly a solid mass of what is 



26 



