104 
THE FLORIST. 
generally capable of improvement with care and management. In 
the first place, if the ground is in the least damp, it must be well 
drained before anything else is attempted. Let the drains be sufficiently 
near each other to remove rain-water quickly, as well as springs in 
the under stratum. If pipes are used let there be 12 or 15 inches of 
broken stones placed over them to promote the quick passage of the 
surface water to the pipes, and in filling up ram or well tread the soil, 
that it should not settle down when the turf is relaid, and leave a hollow 
line over the drain. In the next place, carefully remove with their 
entire roots all the weeds and coarse Grasses. Plantains, Crowfoot, Dan¬ 
delions, Thistles, wild Sorrel, one or two species of Scabiosa and Docks, 
are the weeds most frequently found in damp and rich soils, and even 
the common Daisy may be numerous enough to prove a nuisance in 
such situations. The common weed extractor is the best implement to 
take up the above with their roots, but for the Grasses an old oyster 
knife ground up to an edge is as good as anything, as their stoles will 
be mixed with the other Grasses, and will require care in taking out, 
so as not to injure those left and making patchy places. When the 
lawn is much infested some time will elapse before the whole of these 
pests are cleared; supposing a general weeding takes place in the 
spring before mowing the Grass, the whole should be gone over again 
immediately after each mowing, as at that time the weeds are more 
easily seen, and in a few days a second time, to remove any coarse 
Grasses which are left, as at that time they will have commenced 
growing again and may readily be seen by being taller than the proper 
lawn Grasses. By following up this plan for a month or two you will 
completely eradicate everything objectionable, and although the process 
is a tedious and expensive one, yet it must be borne in mind making a 
new lawn is a serious matter, involving considerable time and outlay, 
which by these means are avoided. 
Wherever the Grass on the lawns after weeding appears thin, from 
the want of a closer bottom, it may be greatly improved by a top- 
dressing. The best season to effect this is in March or early in April. 
The object of a dressing will not be so much to promote a luxuriant 
growth as to encourage the Grasses and Clovers left to tiller or stole out, 
or in other words to get thick at the bottom. P'or ordinary soils use a 
mixture of powdered gypsum or old mortar beat to a dust, road-scrapings, 
coal or wood ashes, and a little soot, adding nitrate of soda after the rate 
of one cwt. per acre ; in place of soot, guano or its substitutes may be 
added where the land is poor. The above should be well mixed with a 
bulk of fine dry earth, and spread regularly over the surface. I have 
named the above ingredients for a dressing as being within the reach of 
most people; but where such is not the case apply to a respectable 
dealer in artificial manures, stating the staple of your soil, and you will 
get a compost for the purpose, which must be mixed with earth, &c., 
as above. Gypsum, superphosphates, the salts of potash and soda, 
with a small quantity of guano, form the base of manures of this 
description, for improving the herbage of inferior pastures, and answer 
the same purpose for lawns. If it is considered, after all, that the lawn 
is deficient in the finer kinds of Grasses, a selection of Grass seeds 
