THE LA WN. 



actual house, I am going to try to tell the reader just how to 

 go to work to make his lawn so that it can be actually used 

 as well as looked at. In this country especially, we see a 

 great many poor lawns and very few good ones, and a poor 

 lawn should be considered as inexcusable a home-feature 

 as a ragged or soiled carpet. We often fail to make good 

 roads and walks, and tree and shrub plantations, but we 

 more often fail to make good lawns. 



The reason for this may be found in the fact that when 

 we make a road or walk of gravel, or asphalt, or other arti- 

 ficial material, we generally have a clear idea of the result 

 we shall attain ; when we plant trees we can foresee, with 

 some degree of certainty, what their future comparatively 

 unhampered growth will be, but, least of all, does this apply 

 to lawns, as lawns are usually made in this country to-day. 



I do not propose in my present remarks to allow myself 

 to be drawn, however, into the fascinating discussion, intro- 

 duced by Mr. James B. Olcott, of the Connecticut Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, concerning the use of selected 

 pieces of pure grass sod for making lawns. Experiments in 

 this direction may, and doubtless will, finally enable us to 

 make lawns possessing a beauty and durability under the 

 stress of daily occupation, of which we have little concep- 

 tion at present. 



But I will say now and here, that sad experience has 

 proved long ago that want of pure grass seed, and the right 

 variety of grass seed, is one of the chief causes of the failure 

 and uncertainty of lawns. Seedsmen cannot furnish pure 

 grass seed, because no one grows pure grass seed, and cer- 

 tainly not the best sorts of seed for making good greensward. 



