TO MAKE A LAWN 



Lawns may be made either by laying turf or by sowing 

 seed. The former is the quicker process, the latter the 

 cheaper and better. In preparing a piece of ground for a 

 lawn the first thing is to provide efficient drainage. The 

 land may be naturally well drained, but if not, trenches 

 about a foot wide should be dug across the ground at 

 intervals of about twelve feet, to a depth of about a foot 

 below the subsoil. These trenches are to be filled with 

 stones or cinders to the level of the top of the subsoil, and 

 the soil replaced. Any excess moisture will drain into these 

 trenches. The ground should then be thoroughly dug, 

 a dressing of old manure well incorporated with it, and 

 the surface carefully levelled. The turves, which must 

 be cut to a uniform depth of about three inches, may be 

 laid any time between October and April. When the 

 whole is laid the turves are to be beaten well down with 

 the lawn beater, and any small spaces between the turves 

 filled in with fine soil. Every day the lawn must be 

 rolled and watered, and as soon as the grass begins to 

 grow it should be mown with a scythe. When the 

 lawn is to be made from seed the soil should be pre- 

 pared exactly as above advised. The seed should be 

 sown thickly — a pound of seed being allowed to every 

 thirty square yards of ground — about the middle of 

 April. The ground should have been previously rolled, 

 and then scratched over with a rake. After the seed is 

 sown, finely sifted soil should be scattered evenly by 

 hand at the rate of three bushels for every thirty square 

 yards. The ground is then to be thoroughly rolled. 



