CONCERNING LAWNS 355 
this seemed a rather poor argument, he suddenly 
brightened up and said: “And what about the 
moles? Do you know that with a large lawn like 
this, with grass fields all round it, you are always 
in danger of getting a mole—that is to say if there 
are any earthworms to attract him. And a mole 
can disfigure a lawn as much as if you had made a 
furrow with a plough across it.” 
No doubt he was right there; but when I said 
that moles could be kept out by sinking a rabbit 
net to a depth of two or three feet beneath the 
surface and would save a lot of labour and expense, 
he only smiled and shook his head. 
The gardener, like the gamekeeper, is never a 
person who will allow you to teach him anything, 
but after our conversation I was more convinced 
than ever that it would be better for the lawn if, 
instead of killing and starving the worms, we were 
to feed them and allow them to make and keep 
a turf. 
With this idea in my mind I tried a fresh experi- 
ment. I pegged out a strip of the lawn at the 
cottage, about ten feet wide, and ran a cord on each 
side to keep it distinct from the rest of the ground, 
and over that strip I sprinkled leaves from the 
acacia and other trees abundantly. I examined the 
ground on the following day and saw no change. 
Leaves were still lying thickly on the ground, and 
it was impossible to tell whether any had been 
carried away or not. The next day it was the 
same. On the morning of the third day there was 
