Moisture Retaining Properties of Different Soils 
and Its Relation to the Growth of Grasses 
John R. Van Kleek, Kenilworth Inn, Sebring 
I deem it quite an honor to be asked 
to deliver a paper before the State Horti¬ 
cultural Society of Florida on this sub¬ 
ject of the growth of grasses. However, 
I feel as I felt some six or seven years 
ago when I was employed at the State 
University of Illinois. I was an in¬ 
structor with the Landscape Extension 
Department out there and was sent into 
various towns in the State to lecture on 
the beautification of schools, lawns, etc., 
where it was the custom in the rural dis¬ 
tricts to call any man who came from the 
University, “Professor.” I was sent into 
a small town in the southern part of Illi¬ 
nois and got off the train loaded down 
with about 300 lantern slides, a traveling 
lantern and a suitcase. I found several 
people waiting at the station, including a 
reporter, and a fellow came up and said, 
“Have you seen Professor Van Kleek?” 
I said, “No, but my name is Van Kleek 
and if I can fill the bill I will be glad to 
do so.” I feel tonight, with my short ex¬ 
perience in Florida, the same way. I 
know that most of you, in fact all of you, 
have had more experience with Florida 
conditions than I have and no doubt you 
will want to hear the experiences of a 
professor and I can only give you the ex¬ 
periences of an instructor. 
A little more than a year ago I began 
the construction of an eighteen-hole golf 
course at Sebring, Florida. You can im¬ 
agine my consternation after leaving 
northern conditions of rock, clay and 
loam to be cast down upon the sands of 
Florida. I will tell you frankly that it 
had me scared and some of it still has me 
scared, but it has been one of the most in¬ 
teresting problems of my life to try to 
cultivate grasses on these sandy soils. 
Perhaps some of you do not know the 
section around Sebring. Sebring is in the 
central part of the State and is quite roll¬ 
ing. The majority of the soil is of a yel¬ 
low texture which has been or which is 
now used for the most successful growing 
of citrus fruits. On the particular piece 
of land which I had to work (about 400 
acres), we had five separate and distinct 
types of soil. The problem then was the 
growth of grass on these five soils. 
Contrary to the common belief the con¬ 
struction of a golf course is purely a hor¬ 
ticultural problem. There are some en¬ 
gineering features, such as the design and 
construction of locations for greens and 
the proper outlining of the fairways and 
traps , etc. Those are purely technical 
features and can be constructed from 
plans, and have really little to do with the 
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