APRIL. 
105 
should be sown over it. The Crested Dog’s-tail Grass, Red or Creeping 
Fescue Grass, Wood Meadow Grass, and Hard Fescue Grass, in about 
equal proportions, at the rate of 1J bushel per acre, adding at the rate of 
5 lbs. each per acre of White Dutch Clover and Trefoil, will be the most 
suitable selection and quantity for ordinary soils; but in limestone dis¬ 
tricts, or on the chalk, Sheep’s Fescue Grass, and Festuca tenuifolia, 
may be added in place of the Hard Fescue, as well as a little Sweet 
Vernal Grass. If this plan is adopted, it will be well to defer laying on 
the compost till the end of March or early in April, when it should 
follow the sowing: let the compost be well raked or swept among the 
roots, which will also bury the newly sown seed, afterwards let it be well 
rolled. When the lawn is mown the Grass should be raked off only, 
as sweeping it may disturb the germinating Grasses; and roll the 
ground after each mowing, to keep the surface even and fine. The 
young Grasses will soon be up, and in the course of a couple of months, 
if attention is paid to mowing every week or ten days, and eradicating 
every weed which may yet appear, the lawn will soon wear a different 
appearance, and form a close velvety turf. 
The general mode of making new lawns is by turfing them at once, 
unless they are of great extent; but this can only be done with 
advantage when a supply of good turf can be obtained at a moderate 
cost, and in many places this proves one of the most costly items in 
improvements; and considering the uncertain nature of the greater part 
of turves, as ordinarily to be obtained, the most unsatisfactory. In some 
districts adjoining the downs, or near the limestone ranges of Wales, 
Cumberland, and Yorkshire, in a great part of Scotland and Ireland, 
near mountain ranges, fine turf may be obtained from the natural Grasses 
of those districts (composed in great part of Sheep’s Fescue, with a few of 
the finer Poas), which form a sward of unequalled fineness, closeness of 
pile, and verdure. I have obtained, by carefully preparing the soil, a 
sward closely approaching the above ; but in low situations, and 
especially in the vicinity of towns, it is difficult to keep it long in its 
normal state of freshness, and I am of opinion that in most cases it is 
more economical and satisfactory to sow down lawns than to turf them, 
as where seed is sown you can make your own selection, and according 
to the nature of the soil adopt such kinds of Grasses as experience 
teaches us will maintain themselves. Of course, where it is decided to 
sow, instead of turfing, the banks, panels, verges, and the outlines of 
beds and clumps, must be laid down in turf, as essential in forming 
correct lines, and afterwards preparing the breadths and intermediate 
portions carefully up to the proper levels for sowing. 
To prepare the ground for forming a lawn, care must be taken, 
supposing any part of it has been disturbed, that such portions are 
properly consolidated by ramming, to prevent the unequal settlement 
which would otherwise follow. If the ground has been previously 
under cultivation or in pasture, the surface soil, roots, weeds, &c., 
should be stifle burned, in the manner pasture land is breast ploughed 
and burned. This will convert the vegetable remains into ashes, and 
destroy the seeds of weeds, &c., which always exist in the soil. The 
ashes are next to be spread over the surface, and the whole carefully 
