372 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



LAWNS AND THEIR UPKEEP. 

 By James MacDonald, F.R.H.S. 



[Read September 8, 1914 ; Dr. F. Keeble, F.R.S., in the Chair.] 



From very early times lawns have been subjects of considerable 

 importance. Our own country has always excelled in their culture, 

 and the heritage left by our fathers deserves from us a continuance 

 of the same care and attention which they gave, so that we may con- 

 tinue the pre-eminence they have bequeathed to us. The old lawns 

 scattered about the country in open places and in crowded cities 

 are no mean legacy. 



The old gardeners were proud of their lawns — or greens, as they 

 were familiarly called — and instances are frequently recorded of the 

 careful and skilful manner in which they transformed unsightly places 

 into scenes of pleasure. I may mention a reference in this direction by 

 that fine old writer, Evelyn, to a spot near our Hall. He writes : 

 " One needs to go no further to see the effect of this husbandry than to 

 St. James's Park, where, before the Canale, I remember all that pleasant 

 valley now yielding most rich Pasturage (with the fish Decoy and walks 

 planted with fragrant Lime) was nothing but a noisome, unwholesome 

 Bog or Morass of moss and rushes." The gardeners of the past were 

 clever men, and it is due to their ability that there are such fine old 

 lawns in the country. 



But, fascinating though the subject of old lawns and their 

 guardians may be, the modern lawn and its upkeep is the theme which 

 most interests us. The lawns of the past were well adapted for the 

 days of chivalry, and the old " gardens with their broad green walks " 

 are being copied very freely by the modern landscape gardener. With 

 the advent of the lawn mower, a great change occurred in the treatment 

 and condition of lawns. The scythe was an implement which required 

 a very considerable amount of skill and concentration of energy, to 

 keep the turf to the required smoothness. With the lawn-mowing 

 machine the work is of a more mechanical nature, and the lawns 

 have suffered accordingly. 



The feeble and hoary tale of the Oxford college gardener, who is 

 reputed to have said that lawns required centuries of ungrammatical 

 culture to get them established, has long been exploited. Lawns 

 can be formed in a few years or a few months, according to the skill 

 and energy displayed in the work. One reason why occasional failures 

 occur with lawns is that very little notice is taken of the pecuharities 

 of the soil and situation. If we wish to plant trees or shrubs we 

 generally take care to select varieties suitable for the locality, but with 

 lawns it is sometimes considered that grass is only grass, and very 



