RENOVATING THE OLD LAWN 5 



vating, because it has gone so far to the bad as 

 to present an appearance of anything in the 

 world but a lawn, should be entirely remade. 

 If the old lawn gave out because the grasses 

 could not find any soil on which to grow, 

 think you then that the new seed will do any 

 better? Not a bit of it! You may add 

 fertiliser, you may scatter bone-meal and 

 wood-ashes in abundance, you may dress it 

 with air-slaked lime in the fall, or you may 

 top-dress abundantly, running the whole 

 gamut of farm manures, but, believe me, you 

 have a long fight ahead. It takes a great deal 

 more than mere dressings of stable manure or 

 chemical fertiliser to once again put the soil 

 into "good heart." 



The quick and sure method of doing this is 

 by the plough. Or, if you only deal with a 

 very small garden, do the work with a spade. 

 It may mean the using up of a great deal of 

 muscular force, but in the long run you will 

 be the gainer. If it's in the fall, top-dress 

 the soil, dig it over two spits deep, and leave 

 it roughly heaped — ^without any smoothing, 

 whatever — for the winter's frosts to act upon 

 it. Frost is a wonderful agent in the mellow- 

 ing of the soil and in the killing of obnoxious 



