100 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1912 
How to Make Good Lawns 
By Albert Lewis 
HE lawn is a canvas on which the landscape 
picture is created, and it not only forms the 
largest part of most ground views, but is an 
element of beauty in itself, and surely the 
verdant sward is the most beautiful element 
in the composition. The lawn to most peo- 
ple is thought of as being merely the closely-cut area about 
the house, but all lawns are not necessarily clipped, and 
among the most beautiful lawns of the pasture are those 
that have been allowed to grow naturally and to display 
their beautiful shades of rich bronze and green. 
The greatest mistakes in lawn-making are caused by em- 
ploying the wrong cultural methods, and varieties of seed, 
in the problem in hand. Let us assume that we have a new 
home, and have completed the grading operations, and the 
top soil has been placed over the filled material to a depth 
of at least six inches, and that a gradual, sloping grade has 
been established for proper drainage. If the ground is low 
and damp, or has a subsoil of clay, it would be best, at the 
start, to lay drain pipes from two to three feet below its 
surface, running toward the lowest point, there to empty 
into a main-drain, gutter or disposal plant. 
should be at least thirty feet apart, 
especially in a heavy clay-soil, and 
lateral drains would be advisable in 
a very low section. “The best drain- 
pipe is the burnt-clay tile sort, laid 
end to end, with a fall of one inch 
in six feet, taking care that the bot- 
tom of the trench is a constant grade. 
so that the pipes will not be clogged. 
Over these pipes the fill should be of 
stone or gravel, to convey the water 
to the intersections where they enter 
the pipe, and to prevent the looser 
material from clogging the drain; 
then the top soil should be placed, 
thus completing the grade. A study 
of the soil is first necessary as to its 
richness and texture; whether sour 
These drains 
or sweet; and its stony condition. Soil that is rich is very 
often acid, which can be corrected by applying air-slaked 
lime in sufhcient quantity to correct the acidity. This can 
be determined by a litmus paper test, familiar to everyone. 
With sandy soil, the question of fertility is of prime im- 
portance. The cheapest means of securing it is by Fall 
plowing or early Summer plowing for the year to come, sow- 
ing down the area with a leguminous cover crop, whose roots 
will collect and store nitrogen from the air. In the follow- 
ing Spring this crop is plowed under for use as fertilizer. 
Where the lawn must be made without this previous prepa- 
ration, the entire area should be covered with at least fifteen 
tons of well-rotted manure, preferably cow manure, which 
does not contain weed seed, and then plowed in. Whére this 
is not possible, chemical fertilizer should be used in the 
following quantities: five hundred pounds of a standard 
phosphate with two hundred pounds of nitrate of soda per 
acre, and thoroughly plowed in. This applies to stony 
ground, from which the stones in the first three inches of 
depth have been removed by raking, and also to hillside 
conditions, where the soil is usually poor. After this fertil- 
izing, and when the soil is perfectly mellow and a smooth 
surface is secured by constant work 
with an iron rake, we are ready to 
sow, which operation must be done 
on a day when the wind will not 
_blow the seed. In the matter of va- 
riety, seed should be selected for the 
soil and shade conditions. In an 
open lawn, under ordinary condi- 
tions, a good mixture is five bushels 
per acre of Poa Pratensis mixed with 
Agrostis Acamna. 
For somewhat shaded areas, a 
mixture should be used of Poa Ne- 
moralis and Festuca Helero Phylla. 
For use under trees, where it is dif- 
ficult to secure a lawn of any kind, 
the ground should be covered with 
Myrtle or Hedera Ivy. After the 
