38 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
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construction of a golf course. The real 
problem is the growing and the cultiva¬ 
tion of young grasses for the playing sur¬ 
faces of the golf course. There are two 
playing surfaces on the golf course, fair¬ 
ways and greens, that constitute two dif¬ 
ferent and distinct problems; but never¬ 
theless, the main problem is the growth 
and the cultivation of the grasses. 
In the cultivation of the grasses the 
one thing that has come under my obser¬ 
vation and the one thing that I think 
spells success or failure is the moisture re¬ 
taining properties of the soil in the 
course. As I have said, we had five dis¬ 
tinct types of soil at Sebring. One was 
the yellow sand common in the high pine 
land. Another was what a lot of us know 
as Rosemary scrub, and those of you who 
don’t know Rosemary scrub I don’t want 
to introduce you to it; it has no food 
value that I have been able to discover. 
The third soil that I had to deal with is 
from the bottom lands and it was a muck. 
The fourth type was a sand soaked type 
that, again, I don’t want to introduce to 
anybody; and the fifth type was the salt 
and pepper sand which resembles the yel¬ 
low sand in composition. 
Well, for the first few weeks and 
months, I asked questions of everybody 
that I could talk to in Florida, and dis¬ 
covered that Bermuda grass was the type 
of grass best suited to cultivate for the 
fairways and greens. Hence, I started to 
plant everything in Bermuda grass. Ih 
the yellow sandy soil not previously un¬ 
der cultivation, and which had not been 
disturbed in the clearing, the Bermuda 
grass roots planted four to six inches 
apart with an ordinary amount of rolling, 
fertilizer and natural rains, developed a 
very good and substantial stand of grass. 
On the other hand, in the same type of 
soil but formerly under cultivation in 
orange groves, the grass planted in the 
same way, with the same amount of fer¬ 
tilizer and water gave very little growth. 
That was due, I believe, to the stirring of 
the soil to a depth of six or eight inches 
giving a very loose condition which held 
no moisture. Also the water applied by 
hose would quickly disappear and hence 
the grass would not grow. The soil here 
was made to grow grass only under in¬ 
tense applications of water and with much 
rolling. It is my belief that the applica¬ 
tion of water and rolling brought the soil 
back to a firm condition and when that 
was attained we got the same results as 
in the soil that was undisturbed. 
The second type was Rosemary scrub 
or white sand. For a long time I could 
not grow a sprig of grass although I used 
every kind of fertilizer anybody could sell 
me; used all kinds of manures. I made 
only a slight application of water. Final¬ 
ly I commenced pouring the water on 
during the latter part of the afternoon 
and evening and then I began to get a 
growth of grass. Now, here again was 
a case where without an intensive and ex¬ 
tremely steady application of water we 
could get but little grass. The natural 
condition of this type is very loose and 
that in a way accounts for lack of plant 
food in the soil. At a later date I covered 
the entire fairway with a stiff muck. 
Even though the expense of the operation 
prevented a complete job, still this muck 
added to the loose sand helped to retain 
the moisture in the soil and produce a 
