56 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



worked into the trenches and hollows. The 

 whole field is then prepared so that the roller 

 can reach every bit of its surface.' 



The best time for sowing with grass I have 

 f6und to be in August; also in September when 

 the weather permits, though August is prefer- 

 able. The advantages of sowing in the summer 

 are: (i) In the autumn one does not expect to 

 have such severe droughts as in the spring ; there- 

 fore, the grass becomes thick and very strong be- 

 fore winter. (2) On meadows the grass seed sown 

 in the autumn grows more vigorously and safely. 

 ( 3 ) One can level the ground and improve it with 

 compost in the summer when the work of the 

 spring and other pressing requirements have been 

 attended to, according to the number of men and 

 draught cattle available. ' Here, where wages are 

 not exactly excessive, I have the ground, when 

 it has been prepared as above, turned up in July 

 in small sections. As soon as rainy weather sets 

 in and the clods are half dry, so that the earth 

 does not clog, I go over it once with the harrow, 

 and sow it in the order of the following mix- 

 tures: English rye grass [LoHum perenne), or- 

 chard grass [Dactylis glomeratd), meadow fescue 

 [Fesiuca pratemh^, velvet grass {Ho/cus lanatus), 

 French rye grass {Arrhenafherum elatius) and tim- 

 othy grass in equal parts, and allow for a Magde- 

 burg acre (.63 of an English acre) one half hun- 



' It may perhaps interest students to have a regular receipt for the 

 sowing of lawns, which I have set down as suggested by my head gar- 

 dener, giving the manner in which the most successful of my lawns 

 have been procured. 



