XV 



LAWNS 



IT IS an easy and simple matter to establish thick 

 green turf if the foundation is well laid, but few 

 things in gardening are more hopeless than the attempt 

 to make grass grow where the grading aroimd a house 

 has been done with the subsoil excavated from its cellar. 

 Nothing but weeds can grow in this hard, sterile earth, 

 and even these give it up sometimes; for subsoil does 

 not contain organic matter — it is what is called inorganic 

 soil — and organic matter is necessary to plant life. 



The extra trouble and cost of first removing top 

 soil and putting it to one side, in a place by itself, may 

 seem a waste, but if this is not done it is not only nec- 

 essary to spend two or three times the amount of money 

 in efforts to quicken the inorganic soil, but an immense 

 amount of precious time as well — and even after all this, 

 satisfactory results are rare. 



Subsoil mmst be exposed to the action of the sun 

 and rain and air for years before it is mellowed ; and in 

 addition to this treatment which only time can give, it 

 must have humus, in quantity — decayed organic mat- 

 ter, both plant and vegetable. With top soil removed 

 first however, to a depth of eight or ten inches — or 



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