30 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
ing. These, lighter soils do not afford 
what golfers term “a good stance’’ or 
foothold, no matter how heavily fertil¬ 
ized. Moreover, if heavily fertilized, a 
large proportion of the fertilizer leaches 
away in these lighter soils, before the 
grass can get the benefit of it. In order 
to meet these two difficulties, a layer of 
stiff, heavy soil, one to two inches in 
thickness, preferably clay, should be 
spread over the ground, after a good 
stand of Bermuda has been obtained. It 
is essential that this layer of clay or heavy 
soil, be kept en masse and not mixed with 
the lighter natural soil of the fairway. 
It will thus form a sort of mat which will 
give the player an excellent footing, hold 
down the lighter soil, and retain any fer¬ 
tilizer which may in the future be applied. 
The Bermuda grass will rapidly penetrate 
this mat and will form a heavy turf. 
Bermuda grass forms the turf on at 
least three quarters of the area of most 
of our links. Its greatest advantages are 
ease of propagation and rapid turf-form¬ 
ing properties. The grass is most suc¬ 
cessfully planted vegetatively, the com¬ 
mon process being to scalp off the tops 
of mature grass slightly below the sur¬ 
face of the ground; run these through 
a feed cutter, or chop them up with mat- 
chetes, and drop the cuttings in furrows, 
and cover. If a thick turf is desired in 
a minimum time, the furrows may be so 
closely spaced that each one will cover 
the one before it. A fairway so planted 
in clay soil on the Miami Country Club 
links was covered with a good playable 
turf in ninety days. On heavy soil, good 
results may be obtained more cheaply by 
broadcasting the chopped grass on the 
prepared land and disking it in. A peri¬ 
od of hot. dry weather following the 
planting by this latter method, however, 
is liable to result in a very poor stand of 
grass. 
On the newer portion of the Miami 
Country Club course, about half the area 
is marl prairie and the remainder sandy 
pine land. Practically all of this portion 
of the links was carefully prepared for 
planting before any planting was started. 
By this procedure work was very econom¬ 
ically accomplished, as a planting gang 
once organized and started, never ceased 
operations until the whole area was plant¬ 
ed. The heavy marl lands were worked 
on in the dry weather, and wherever fre¬ 
quent showers made the sandy pine lands 
sufficiently moist, the planting gang was 
transferred to them. In this way a fine 
turf was produced over the whole area 
with no watering whatever. 
On most of our soils, Bermuda grass 
will require considerable weeding and at 
least two good applications of fertilizer 
per year. It can probably be best main¬ 
tained if completely plowed under every 
second or third year and a new growth 
allowed to come back from the root 
stocks in the soil. This process prevents 
the grass from becoming rootbound, cul¬ 
tivates the soil and destroys many of the 
weeds. 
St. Lucie Grass is similar to Bermuda 
in appearance except that it is a little 
coarser and of a lighter color. It is much 
more easily destroyed than Bermuda, will 
often die if allowed to grow high and 
burned off; or sometimes, after a rank 
growth is obtained, it will not spring 
again from the roots after having been 
