CHAPTER VI 



How TO Feed a Lawn 



Making a good start — Green manure and humus — Artificial fertilisers 

 — Dressing the new lawn — Keeping old lawns up to pitch — Top 



* dressings — ^Animal manure vs. chemical fertilisers — Where weeds 

 come from — Stable manure — Sheep manure — Wood ashes — Bone- 

 meal — Nitrate of soda — Top dressings — Lime for sour soils — 

 Tobacco stems. 



Nobody expects good corn from unfed 

 land. It is a matter of good gardening to 

 feed the land heavily for all the vegetable 

 crops. Yet they are cleared annually, and 

 the ground has the benefit of cultivation while 

 they are growing. But the lawn is too often 

 neglected. The grass is a permanent crop 

 and really needs richer feeding than many 

 of the vegetable crops. The ground cannot 

 be cultivated after the grass is growing, but 

 it can, and must, be thoroughly enriched be- 

 fore. Manure ploughed under at the time of 

 the general preparation is the foundation for 

 later feeding with chemical fertilisers. 



On sandy soils the dressing of manure can 

 be much heavier than on heavy soils, and will 

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