84 MANUAL OF GARDENING 
move the hose to another place. A thorough soaking like this, 
a few times in a dry summer, will do more good than sprin- 
kling every day. If the land is deeply prepared in the first place, 
so that the roots strike far into the soil, there is rarely need of 
watering unless the place is arid, the season unusually dry, or 
the moisture sucked out by trees. The surface sprinkling en- 
genders a tendency of roots to start near the surface, and there- 
fore the more the lawn is lightly watered, the greater is the 
necessity for watering it. 
Sodding the lawn. 
Persons who desire to secure a lawn very quickly may sod 
the area rather than seed it, although the most permanent 
results are usually secured by seeding. Sodding, however, is 
expensive, and is to be used only about the borders of the 
place, near buildings, or in areas in which the owner can afford 
to expend considerable money. The best sod is that which is 
secured from an old pasture, and for two or three reasons. In 
le the first place, it is the right kind 
Ga of grass, the June-grass (in the 
North) being the species that often- 
est runs into pastures and crowds 
out other plants. Again, it has 
been so closely eaten down, espe- 
cially if it has been pastured by 
sheep, that it has made a very dense and well-filled sod, which 
can be rolled up in thin layers. In the third place, the soil in 
old pastures is likely to be rich from the droppings of animals. 
In taking sod, it is important that it be cut very thin. An 
inch and a half thick is usually ample. It is ordinarily rolled 
up in strips a foot wide and of any length that will allow the 
rolls to be handled by one or two men. A foot-wide board is 
laid upon the turf, and the sod cut along either edge of it. One 
person then stands upon the strip of sod and rolls it towards 
= =e 
77. Cutting sod for a lawn. 
