AVENUES, VISTAS, AND LAWNS 
9i 
“ Feeding.” 
over the surface. This may be done in February, and repeated 
annually as long as is necessary. Our experience at Kew with artificial 
manures as a top-dressing for lawns is not such as to 
lead us to recommend them. They stimulate the grass 
into great activity of growth for a short time, but produce no per- 
manent benefit commensurate with the cost. Where lawns are very 
thin and poor, and do not respond to mere surface feeding, it becomes 
necessary to take off the turf, dig over the ground to the depth of 
about a foot, and add manure or good soil as the work proceeds. 
Such turf as may be worth it is then relaid, and the vacant space 
sown with a suitable mixture of grass seeds. With regard to the 
watering of lawns, it may certainly be said that in hot, dry summers 
nothing is so beneficial to them, especially where the grass is worn 
by traffic. In such a soil as that of Kew, the limit of watering need 
only be fixed by considerations of labour and expense. The auto- 
matic “ irrigators ” of various designs are admirable wherever they 
can be employed. They afford a fine continuous spray of long 
duration, which is far preferable to deluging the ground from hose- 
pipes. 
It is not often that people realise how much we owe to 
Mr. Budding, the inventor of the mowing machine. The first 
machine was constructed from his model, in 1832, by 
Ransomes of Ipswich. Probably no single invention 
has done so much for gardens. Without an enormous 
cost in labour the smooth, spacious lawns of great gardens 
would be impossible but for this machine. There are those still 
living who can remember having to mow the grass at Kew with 
scythes. 
Lawn 
Mowing. 
