A YEAR'S GARDENING 



and as many of the weeds as possible; so long as the roots of the 

 existing grass are not puUed up, the more the ground is loosened the 

 better. The surface thus prepared should then be sown with seed 

 — thickly or thinly, according to the bareness of the turf — and 

 covered lightly with sifted soil in which some suitable artificial 

 manure (such as Carter's Grass Manure, No. 2) has been mixed. 

 The whole should then be gently cross-rolled with a light roller. 

 Of course, if there has been long-standing neglect, and the weeds have 

 been allowed to get the upper hand of the grass, more stringent 

 measures for their extirpation may be necessary, but even then, unless 

 the whole plot requires readjustment in level, it is generally better 

 to renovate rather than re-make. 



Weeding by hand is not the impossible job it is sometimes sup- 



posed to be, and there may be more wisdom in sub- 

 " ® mitting to a calculable expenditure of time or money 



on weeding an old lawn than in committing oneself to a vaguely- 

 estimated expense in making a new one. Even on a good lawn 

 weeding is generally a necessary precaution, and if it be done regularly 

 each spring the labour is but small. Weeds on a lawn may be 

 roughly divided into two classes — the shallow-rooted, such as daisies 

 and buttercups, and the long-rooted, such as plantains and dande- 

 lions. The first are easily eradicated with a daisy-fork, but the latter 

 require a different treatment. Merely to cut off the tops of these 

 long-rooted weeds is worse than useless, as it induces them to ramify 

 and send out several crowns where only one previously existed. 

 But if, when cutting off the crown, some strong acid be immediately 



applied to the exposed stem, its destruction is certain. 

 Lone-rooted ^ simple plan is to have at hand a small vial of sul- 

 WeSs phuric acid, in which is immersed a stout, sharp- 



, pointed iron skewer, and with the skewer thus wet 



with the acid the root of the weed should be pierced perpendicularly 

 as far as possible. Of course the acid must not be allowed to drop 

 upon one's clothes or flesh, and gloves should be used in doing the 

 work. If the weeds are numerous, an incentive to methodical and 

 efficient work may be found in portioning out the ground into strips 

 of (say) a yard wide by means of pegs and string, the space thus 

 allotted being first cleared of daisies and, shallow-rooted growths 

 and then of the deep-rooted weeds. Any bare patches which may 

 be made by the removal of the weeds may be- repaired by loosening 

 the soil and sprinkhng on it a pinch of seed. The best time for the 

 work is the early spring, while the turf is still moist from winter 

 rains. 



126 



