1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
601 
The Home Acre. 
ESTABLISHING A LAWN. 
I wish to put the ground about my 
new house in better condition, there be¬ 
ing some of the excavating dirt about it. 
I can get some top soil or sand from the 
next lot, and have some good manure. 
Are there any fertilizing chemicals that 
will help? A good lawn, flowers, and 
possibly some garden truck is what I 
desire. P. J. H. 
Long Island. 
On the best natural grass lands it is 
almost invariably found upon making a 
comparison that the subsoil is distinctly 
of a heavier texture than the top soil, 
and very rarely if ever of a distinct 
sandy nature; hence it follows that for 
best results in the building up of land 
for lawn purposes, sand as a foundation 
is to be avoided, as much as possible. 
While it is true that fairly good lawns 
can be made and maintained on a dis¬ 
tinctively sandy loam soil, underlaid with 
sand subsoil, it is equally true that the 
maintenance is more expensive and diffi¬ 
cult than when the subsoil is of clay, as 
the grass will suffer much more quickly 
and severely during a drought, and if 
means of watering are not available, 
much of it will burn out entirely, par¬ 
ticularly where the top soil is thin or 
where the capillary action of the water 
from some cause interfered with. 
In the building up of the soil for lawn 
purposes, whatever the nature or texture 
of the soil used for a foundation, it 
should be spread evenly ; that is it should 
be of equal and uniform depth all over 
the portion fdled in, all unevenness should 
be avoided, so that when the top soil 
is put on, it also will be equal and uni¬ 
form depth all over the made ground, 
otherwise the lawn will not be uniform in 
appearance but will be more or less 
spotted, due to the difference in the 
depth of the soils and kinds used in the 
filling in. All rubbish should be avoided 
and nothing in the way of scraps of 
lumber, brick, etc., should be mixed in 
the soil unless the fill is more than three 
feet deep; then such refuse may be used 
in the bottom, but never nearer than 
three feet to the surface. The top soil 
should be a good loam preferably from 
a cultivated field, as it is Li much better 
mechanical condition and tilth than soils 
from vacant lots that have not been cul¬ 
tivated for a number of years. Soils 
from old worn-out lands are to be scrupu¬ 
lously avoided as totally unfit for lawn 
purposes. The top soil should be good 
and from eight to 12 inches deep. It 
should be made firm and be well fertil¬ 
ized with well-rotted, finely pulverized 
stable manure, applied at the rate of 20 
to BO tons to the acre, well worked 
into and thoroughly incorporated with 
the soil, either by plowing and harrow¬ 
ing or by spading and raking. If well 
manured at the time of making no other 
• fertilizer will be required. The soil 
should in all respects receive the same 
care and fertilizing in the preparation 
as would be given if a prize crop of 
vegetables or grain was to be grown. 
Before sowing the seed the land should 
be rolled with a hand roller. This will 
reveal all hollows and bumps; these 
should be leveled to the general surface 
with a steel rake, and if the surface 
showed much unevenness the first rolling, 
it should be rolled again, this time cross- 
ways of the first rolling, and all hollows 
filled up and bumps leveled as in the first 
rolling and raking. If the work has been 
properly done, the ground is now ready 
for the seed. If the soil is sandy and 
light, a mixture of grasses suitable for 
such soils should be sown. The same 
rule applies to heavy or intermediate 
soils. Nearly all the large seed houses 
can furnish grass seed suitable for any 
particular kind of soil, and when placing 
your order for the seed it is always well 
to state the nature and texture of the 
soil, so that your order may be filled with 
intelligence. In the sowing of seed do 
not be saving, but apply it in plenty, 
and sow it evenly, sow from SO to 100 
pounds to the acre. After the seed has 
been evenly sown, rake in very lightly 
and roll with the hand roller. 
The proper maintenance and care of 
the lawn is of quite as much importance 
as that of the making. Therefore the 
cutting should be attended to as often 
as it is required; at the beginning the 
grass should not be cut closer to the 
ground than 1 % inches. After a few 
cuttings the grass will have become more 
firmly established when the mower may 
be lowered to cut it within an inch of 
the ground. In a wet season this height 
may be maintained throughout the sea¬ 
son, but in a dry season it may be neces¬ 
sary to cut it somewhat higher and if a 
drought occurs, to suspend cutting until 
rains occur. Lawns cannot be kept in 
good condition from year to year with¬ 
out feeding, which necessarily must be 
supplied from the top, and should com¬ 
mence not later than the second year 
after establishing the lawn. The first 
food applied should be pure ground bone 
meal, at the rate of one-half ton to the 
acre early in Spring; a mid-summer 
application of bone may be made at the 
rate of one-fourth ton to the acre with 
increased benefit. The next food appli¬ 
cation should be well-rotted stable ma¬ 
nure applied in early Winter, and just 
heavy enough to avoid smothering the 
grass. This is to be raked over in early 
Spring and all debris together with the 
rougher portion of the manure removed. 
These fertilizers should be applied al¬ 
ternately during the succeeding years as 
directed for the first and second years 
of feeding. In some soils, in fact most 
soils, it will greatly benefit the lawn 
to apply air-slaked lime at the rate of 
one ton to the acre about every fourth or 
fifth year, early in Spring. k. 
Incubator as Hotbed. 
I have an old incubator eight feet long, 
28 inches wide, 400-egg capacity, lamps 
on both ends, that I would like to con¬ 
vert into some sort of arrangement to 
heat a bed for growing lettuce, etc., in 
a basement, with lots of windows on 
south side. I note quite a discussion in 
recent issues of utilizing lamps and oil 
heaters for cold frames. Can anyone ad¬ 
vise me on my problem? j. b. 
Oceanport, N. J. 
I have seen hot water incubatoi’s con¬ 
verted into a propagating bed for the 
raising of vegetable and flowering plants 
that worked admirably, but have never 
seen the scheme tried out with a hot-air 
machine. I have no doubt it could be 
made to give good results, but the ar¬ 
rangement would probably have to be 
somewhat different from that provided 
for the hot water machine, particularly 
in the matter of drainage for the sur¬ 
plus water. With the hot water machine 
the surplus water was allowed to run 
inside the machine and out through the 
crevice at the door of the egg chamber. 
With a hot-air machine the matter of 
carrying off the drainage would have to 
be done from the outside. If I was 
handling this I would remove the top 
of the machine, and fit a sheet of zinc 
to the top, allowing the edges of the zinc 
to overlap the top of the incubator slight¬ 
ly on the sides, and at the ends, I would 
turn the edges of the zinc up a half-inch 
or so to act as a guard against water 
running on to the lamps. On this zinc 
I would fit a frame six or eight inches 
deep made from good seven-eighths inch 
material, to which I would fit a sash 
large enough to cover the top of the box 
or frame. I think with some such ar¬ 
rangement as this, and the use of about 
four inches of good soil in the bed, one 
would find it a very successful propo¬ 
sition. In the providing of this arrange¬ 
ment, the heat regulator would not be 
taken into account at all, as you would 
use a thermometer inside the plant frame 
and go according to it. The legs of the 
incubator would have to be elevated on 
one side a half-inch or so, so as to pro¬ 
vide some fall for carrying off the sur¬ 
plus water. k. 
A religious worker was visiting a 
Southern penitentiary, when one prison¬ 
er in some way took his fancy. This 
prisoner was a negro who evinced a reli¬ 
gious fervor as deep as it was gratifying 
to the caller. “Of what are you ac¬ 
cused?” the prisoner was asked. “Dey 
says I took a watch.” answered the ne¬ 
gro. “I made a good fight. I had a dan¬ 
dy lawyer, an’ he done prove an alibi wif 
ten witnesses. Den my lawyer he shore 
made a strong speech to de jury. But 
it wasn’t no use, suh; I gets ten years.” 
“I don’t see why you were not acquitted,” 
said the religious worker. “Well, suh,” 
explained the prisoner, “dere was shore 
one weak spot ’bout my defense—dey 
found de watch in my pocket.”—Phila¬ 
delphia Record. 
Good News To ffi Buyers 
Now you can tell to a cent 
just what anything will cost 
laid down at your R. R. Sta¬ 
tion. You have nothing to 
pay when the goods arrive. 
No other Mail Order House 
gives you this great advantage. 
No other big Mail Order House 
Pays the Freight. 
We pay the freight on all shipments 
of 100 pounds or more to any point 
in the following States (excepting on 
safes, vehicles and farm implements): 
NewYork, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, 
Maryland, Delaware, NewJersey, Maine, NewHampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 
If you live anywhere outside the States named 
above we will pay a liberal part of the freight 
charges. So no matter where you live you can 
enjoy this Freight Paid Advantage in part if not all. 
Write for this Big 
Catalog Today 
(38) 
It is the only big Mail Order Book that 
quotes freight paid prices. Contains 1100 
pages of money saving bargains. A postal 
brings it. Send for it today. 
Maynard 
Junior 
Cream 
Separator 
* 23 s ° 
C Q _ * Gal. and 
DOC up for 
l Freight Paid 
Easiest to run, 
easiest to keep 
sweet and clean. 
Lifetime guar¬ 
antee. Built for 
hard service. If 
not satisfact¬ 
ory, your mo¬ 
ney back. 60 
Days’ Free 
Trial. Catalog 
. shows 4 larger 
nzes. 200 lba. ca¬ 
pacity per hour. 
» Freight paid $23.50 
Barn Paint 
Freight Paid 
Six shades. Will not 
blister, peel or rub off. 
QQ 0 a Gal. and 
I?OC up for 
HOUSE PAINT 
uaranteed. Write for 
o Paint Book and Color 
da. Show 180 samples. 
26 inch Hog Fence 
Freightl f*c Per 
Paid Jl U Rod 
NO.28A10. Has bot¬ 
tom barbed wire 
woven in and 
stayed six inches 
apart. Hogs can’t 
get under. We pay 
Frt. on 20 rds. or over 
(in 
eVEffCDTs' 
hoofing 
■ tin mu 1 
Evercote $*1 05 
Roofing 1 
Will outlast tin,s hingles 
or steel. 1 ply guaran¬ 
teed 7 yrs. $1.05; 2 ply 
guaranteed 10 yrs. $1.30; 
|, p >y guaranteed 12 yrs. 
Rand om 0*21 51.60. Freight paid on 
3 rolls or more. 
Mission 
Rocker $015 
Freight Paid J"*. 
Solid oak, 
weathered 
finish.Seat 
17 x 18 ins. 
Height of 
back from 
seat 20 ins. 
Weight crated 
about 35 lbs. 
Order No. 
5A1041 
Two Year Guarantee 
30 Day Free Road Test 
And, in addition to all that, my 
Direct-to-You Plan saves you £25 
to $40 on every vehicle I make. 
This book shows 
125 Styles 
for 1914. 
SEND YOUR NAME ON A POSTAL FOR MY BIG BOOK 
Get the facts regarding buggy prices. Get a buggy that will make your neighbors 
green with envy—and pay $25 to $40 less for it. 
H. C. Phelps, Pres. THE OHIO CARRIAGE MFG. CO., Station 290, Columbus. Ohio 
All Smiles 
Hubbard' 
is the farmer who uses 
ON 
Fertilizers 
to nourish and rejuvenate his tired, worn-out farms 
Because 
B iggeq 
ETTEIl 
Crops 
always gladden the heart of the true farmer. Read this letter, then let 
us help you make 1914 a record year. 
r> p „ ,, . ~ " Enfield, N. H., Sept 9,1913. 
1 he Rogers & Hubbard Co., 
Middletown, Conn. 
Gentlemen- We have obtained very satisfactory results from the use 
of your Fertilizers this year. We used Hubbard’s "Bone Base” Fertilizer 
for Oats and Top-Dressing at the rate of 350 pounds to the acre on new 
stock and cut over four tons of hay to the acre. We havea beautiful stand 
of Potatoes. Applied Hubbard’s “Bone Base” Soluble Potato Manure 
using 1500 pounds per acre. We think there is no Fertilizer like Hubbard’sl 
after trying various brands that are on the market. 
Respectfully yours. 
CUMMINGS & SPONNER, 
Per I. Malone, Supt. 
Write today for our booklets. “Soil Fertility,” “Th. Grass Crop,” “The Apple *• and 
Hubbard's Bone Base 1914 Almanac, which contains much valuable information about 
soil, fertilizers and other farm subjects. Sent free to any address. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., Address Dept. A, Middletown, Conn. 
Office and Works, Portland, Conn. 
r hen you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and 
_ 3 _ «< __ .1 
, u --- - --you’ll get a quick reply 
and a square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
