HERE is nothing more charming than a well-designed 
house surrounded by artistically treated grounds; and of 
the essential features of home grounds none is so important 
as a beautiful lawn—the rich, velvety turf of the smooth, well- 
kept lawn, varying in tones of green with the play of sunlight 
and cloud shadows, being the heart and life of all. 
“The Tropics may have their delights, but they have not the turf, and the 
world without turf is a dreary desert. The Teutonic races all love turf; they 
emigrate in the line of its growth.”,—CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 
A lawn may be formed either by laying turf or by sowing 
seed. The gain in time by sodding is mostly in anticipation, 
an advantage so slight as to scarcely be worthy of considera- 
tion, while the results obtained by both methods are not to be 
compared. Sods, no matter how carefully cut and closely laid, 
often separate, leaving crevices about which the grass dies out 
in dry weather; then the grasses that compose a pasture or 
roadside sod (generally the kind used for ‘‘sodding’’ lawns) are 
not at all the best sorts for forming a perfect lawn; besides, the 
smooth, elegant surface, such a desirable feature of a lawn, 
cannot be secured by sodding. 
A perfect and enduring lawn, one of luxuriant richness with 
closely interwoven, firm, deep and elastic turf, is only created 
by sowing a composition of the various kinds of grass seeds 
suited to the conditions and the climate. Several varieties are 
needed, that the lawn may be verdure-clad during all seasons, 
and the seeds must be sown liberally (at the rate of from four 
to six bushels per acre), not only that a lawn may be produced 
quickly, but because the kinds of grasses suitable for perfect 
lawns are fine-leaved and should take entire possession of the 
ground promptly, thus checking the development of weeds, the 
seeds of which are in all soils. The coarse pasture and hum- 
mock-forming grasses will not produce a finelawn. Good, rich, 
deeply worked soil, either of a friable texture or else under- 
drained, is as necesSary fot the production of a perfect lawn as 
for garden crops, although most grasses, being accommodating 
plants, if they do not get the requisites for best results, will do 
their best with what is supplied them. Early and frequent 
mowing and rolling, as well as the liberal application of water 
through a lawn sprinkler during dry seasons, is one of the secrets 
of maintaining beautiful green turf from snow to snow. 
LAWNS: Their Formation and Care. 
FOUN] 
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1 We not infrequently see, after a dwelling costin 
Grading. five, ten, twenty or thirty thousand dollars 2 
erected, that the grounds surrounding it are left to the tender 
mercy of some ignorant pretender to grade and put in shape. 
The educated, intelligent architect’s duties in many cases end 
with the completion of the building, and the ‘‘ garden architect’’ 
is installed to grade for the lawn; and a common consequence 
is that the beauty of the place may be forever marred, for this 
matter really in many cases requires as much intelligence and 
good judgment as the construction of the dwelling itself. One 
of the first conditions for a perfect lawn is that the land 
be perfectly drained, either naturally or artificially; if the 
subsoil is sand or gravel, so that water can quickly pass 
through it, then there will be no need for artificial drains, but 
if there is a stratum of adhesive clay for a subsoil, then drains 
are indispensable every fifteen or twenty feet. As the forma- 
tion of the lawn is the foundation of all subsequent operations, 
it is imperative that it be carefully done; for if badly done at 
first it cannot be changed or altered, unless to the great detri- 
ment of trees or shrubs that have been planted or flower beds 
or walks that have been laid out. 
The first thing to be done is to get the ground shaped to the 
desired grade, taking care in grading that when hills or rocks 
are removed, sufficient subsoil is also removed to be replaced 
with top soil, so that at least five inches of good soil will over- 
lay the whole in all places; and where trees are to be planted 
there should be twice that depth of good soil. 
ing is finished, if the nature of the ground requires it, drains 
should be laid wherever necessary; then the whole should be 
thoroughly plowed, a subsoil following in the wake of the com- 
mon plow, until it is completely pulverized. A heavy harrow 
should then be applied until the surface is thoroughly fined 
down; all stones, roots, etc., should' be removed, so that a 
smooth surface may be obtained. We have used, with great 
effect and saving of labor, the ‘‘Disc Smoothing Harrow,’’ 
which fines and levels the land equal to a steel rake; and 
wherever large areas are in pfeparation for lawns, or in fact 
for any field culture requiring a fine smooth surface, this im- 
plement will be found to be of great value. 
When the grad-. 
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