110 THE LA WN. 



A variety of opinions prevail concerning the best grasses for 

 seeding. It will be safe to say that for lawns timothy and red 

 clover are totally unsuited, and that the grasses which make the 

 best pastures in the neighborhood, will make the best lawns. The 

 following mixture for one bushel of seed is recommended in Hen- 

 derson's Manual of Floriculture, viz : 



12 quarts Rhode Island Bent Grass. 



4 quarts creeping Bent Grass, 



lo quarts Red-top. 



3 quarts Sweet Vernal Grass. 



2 quarts Kentucky Blue Grass. 



I quart White Clover. 



We have seen very successful lawns made with equal parts, by 

 weight, of Kentucky blue grass, red-top, and white clover seed. 

 The quantity required is about a half bushel to each one hundred 

 feet square. 



When rains are frequent, no lawn can be brought to perfection 

 if cut less often than once a week, and two weeks is the longest time 

 a lawn should remain uncut, except in periods of total suspension 

 of growth by severe drouth. Where shrubs and flowers are placed 

 properly, there will always be clear space enough to swing a la*n 

 scythe or roll a lawn machine. Only in the most contracted yards 

 should there be nooks and corners, or strips of grass, that an or- 

 dinary mower cannot get at easily, and without endangering either 

 the plants or his temper. Places that are so cluttered with 

 flowers, trees, and shruts that it becomes a vexatious labor for 

 a good mower to get in among them, are certainly not well 

 planted. Good taste, therefore, in arrangement, will have for its 

 first and durable fruits, economy, a product of excellent flavor 

 for all who desire to create beauty around their homes, but who 

 can illy afford to spend much money to effect it, or to waste any in 

 failing to effect it. The advice to plant so as to leave sufficient 

 breadth to swing a scythe wherever there is any lawn at all, is none 

 the less useful, though the admirable little hand-mowing machines 

 take the place of the scythe ; for a piece of lawn in a place where a 

 scythe cannot be swung, is not worth maintaining. 



