EXECUTION OF SOME OF THE LANDSCAPE FEATURES 81 
be sown very thick. Three to five bushels to the acre is the 
ordinary application of grass seed (page 79). 
Securing a firm sod. 
The lawn will ordinarily produce a heavy crop of weeds the 
first year, especially if much stable manure has been used. 
The weeds need not be pulled, unless such vicious intruders as 
docks or other perennial plants gain a foothold; but the area 
should be mown frequently with a lawn-mower. The annual 
weeds die at the approach of cold, and they are kept down by 
the use of the lawn-mower, while the grass is not injured. 
It rarely happens that every part of the lawn will have an 
equal catch of grass. The bare or sparsely seeded places should 
be sown again every fall and spring until the lawn is finally com- 
plete. In fact, it requires constant attention to keep a lawn 
in good sod, and it must be continuously in the process of mak- 
ing. It is not every lawn area, or every part of the area, that is 
adapted to grass; and it may require long study to find out why 
it isnot. Bare or poor places should be hetcheled up strongly 
with an iron-toothed rake, perhaps fertilized again, and then 
reseeded. It is unusual that a lawn does not need repairing 
every year. Lawns of several acres which become thin and 
mossy may be treated in essentially the same way by dragging 
them with a spike-tooth harrow in early spring as soon as the 
land is dry enough to hold a team. Chemical fertilizers and 
grass seed are now sown liberally, and the area is perhaps 
dragged again, although this is not always essential; and then 
the roller is applied to bring the surface into a smooth condition. 
To plow up these poor lawns is to renew all the battle with weeds, 
and really to make no progress; for, so long as the contour i3 
correct, the lawn may be repaired by these surface applications. 
The stronger the sward, the less the trouble with weeds; yet 
it is practically impossible to keep dandelions and some other 
weeds out of lawns except by cutting them out with a knife 
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