48 LAWNS 



prevention of seeding encourages vigorous 

 vegetative grovs^th, which means abundant 

 foliage and bright healthy green colour. Noth- 

 ing will work greater injury than seed for- 

 mation. It exhausts the plant, and with 

 many of the grasses which are included in 

 lawn mixtures will inevitably result in their 

 dying out. 



If a lawn mower of the ordinary rotary 

 knife type is used there is a tendency (espe- 

 cially in the younger age of the lawn) to set 

 the knives so as to cut too close to the ground. 

 This is trying in a variety of ways. De- 

 priving the plant of nearly all its foliage 

 taxes its vitality until it shall have made 

 another start. In the meantime, as fre- 

 quently happens in the early days of spring, 

 there is a likelihood of the weather becom- 

 ing suddenly hot and dry. The surface of 

 the ground being exposed to the direct action 

 of the sun's rays, and especially if there has 

 been any large degree of feeding during the 

 winter, the tax on the plants' constitution, 

 as may be easily realised, is very severe. It 

 is quite possible, indeed, to burn out some of 

 the grasses in this way in the very earliest 

 days of spring. 



