2 SOUTHERN HOME GROUNDS 
Th« lawn should be smooth and level, so no water can gather and staad 
The Lawn 
THE scarcity of handsome lawns throughout the South is due more to 
improper preparation of the soil than to the long, warm summers. True, 
the sokrction of the correct grasses has much to do with the success or 
failure of a lawn, but most failures are directly traceable to poor prepa- 
ration of the soil — the foundation of every lawn. 
The first thing we must have is drainage, for no suitable lawn grass likes 
wet feet. In ordinary soils sufficient drainage is obtained by securing the proper 
grade so that theie are no hollows to allow the retention of water during "thaws." 
In unusually heavy or clayey soils, it may be necessar>' to lay underground 
tiles in lines about 15 feet apart. The idea is not to strive for dry ground but 
rather to carry off all surplus moisture. By drainage we do not mean that the 
ground is to be kept dry, for grass cannot thrive without sufficient moisture. 
We simply mean that surplus moisture must be carried off, and not allowed to 
stand on the grass or about it.s roots. 
The ground should be fairly rich. Eight inches of good soil (preferably 
loam) should be harrowed or spaded in and well mixed with a liberal quantity 
of dry, rotted manure; about 8 cords to the acre, or 2 or 3 inches deep, is the 
proper amount. All manure contains weed seeds to some extent, but it is neces- 
sary on .some lands for the condition of the soil. In the proper amounts, it 
will make a sandy soil less porous and a clay soil more pliable and less liable 
to crack and bake during the dry spells. In spading or harrowing the ground, 
you should pick off and burn all the weed roots you can find, for smut grass 
or broom sedge will soon deface a lawn if it gets a start. Wild onions and 
rib grass, or narrow-leaf plantain, are other obnoxious pests. 
The next problem is the selection of seed. Care must be taken in this, for 
the grass is the visible evidence of your labor and the thing that beautifies 
the ground. No one variety possesses all the fine points you must have, but there 
are several mixtures of the best sorts that are giving good results. Among these 
