July U. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
appointment. Innumerable worm-casts have given it 
the appearance of having received a top-dressing; 
sweeping off, will, of course, remove this nuisance ; but 
it appears again in a day or two, and the evil is re¬ 
peated ; whereas, sweeping at such a time more or less 
dirties the grass, which it is then important to keep 
clean, and before it recovers itself again, the operation 
is_ very likely to be repeated. As this often happens 
with turf which in summer is perfection itself, it becomes 
a matter of consideration, whether its good appearance 
then is not purchased at too expensive a rate. Let us 
recall to memory the appearance that the lawn had last 
autumn, which we are complaining of as looking bad 
now, when we may remember the absence of worm-casts 
to any extent, and the green freshness it presented to 
the eye, scarce a blade but was green to the tip, until 
the setting in of severe weather gave it that brown cast 
which is equally fatal to the herbage elsewhere. 
Perhaps our readers will be saying, why not neutralize 
the two, and obtain the benefits of both, as is done, or is 
attempted to be done, in so many things. This, we are 
aware ot, is done both artificially and naturally, but in 
neither case does it approach the extremes above- 
named; besides which, in the formation of extensive 
tracts of lawn grass, the materials at command may be 
so limited as not to allow of all the best conceived ideas 
1 being carried out; for, coeval with the formation of a 
lawn, is very often that of the formation of flower-beds, 
shrubberies, stations for particular trees, &c., all of 
which are supposed to have a greater claim on the good 
soil at command than the turf, consequently, it is out of 
what remains that the new lawn, if it be such, has to be 
formed, and the operator is often glad if he only can 
obtain good sound pasture turf to lay it with, which he 
cannot at all times do, and is consequently obliged to 
make his surface out of such materials as he has, and 
depend on his seedsman giving him such a mixture of 
grasses as he deems most suitable to form a bottom with¬ 
in the shortest possible time. Now this plan answers 
very well at times, and we have seen excellent lawns 
prepared in this way, when the season, and other things, 
conspire to their well doing; but this is not always the 
case; for besides the failures that often take place in 
the getting of grass seeds to grow, it does not always 
make a good sound bottom when it does succeed; how¬ 
ever, when turf cannot be had, there seems no alterna¬ 
tive but to adopt this plan, unless it happen there be a 
small quantity of turf at command, when, by pulling it 
(not cutting) into pieces about the size of a person’s 
hand, or less, it can be scattered, or rather carefully 
placed over the smoothened surface of the ground a 
little way apart. This, when united, will form a toler¬ 
ably good bottom, but seeds may be sown amongst it 
likewise. This is called innoculating; and when a piece 
of ground is wanted to be quickly turfed over, or ren¬ 
dered green, this is, perhaps, the most economic way of 
all, and if it be at a little distance from the observer it 
speedily assumes all the characters of good turf. A 
more than ordinary amount of rolling must, however, 
be given to it, for as the patches are all placed above 
the surface level, they require to be pressed into it in 
' oi'der to keep them on a level with the interstices; of 
! course, it would be proper to have the turf that is used 
1 for such a purpose of as good a kind as possible, but 
| this may, perhaps, be more easily attained when it is 
i known that not more than one-tenth part of the surface 
to be covered is wanted by this plan, although a greater 
quantity may be planted over more advantageously, still 
it is not absolutely necessary. Now, after all this, the 
well being of the turf is a matter more really due to the 
quality of the soil than anything else; yet some few 
points ought to be attended to, whatever kind of sub¬ 
stance it is intended to be sowm or planted on. 
1st. The surface material, to at least the depth of six 
285 
inches or more, ought to he of a uniform quality, 
whether that be rich or poor, or any mixture between 
the two ; a greater depth than six inches has often been 
insisted on, but this will do in most cases, except on 
slopes, of which we will say something hereafter. 
2udly. If seed has to be sown, choose a damp day for 
that purpose, and let it be immediately raked in, and as 
soon as the rain is supposed to be over, give the piece a 
dressing of soot, or soot and lime, or something else 
that way, in order to render the seeds distasteful to 
birds who prey on this seed so destructively as often 
leads to a belief that the seeds must have been bad, 
wdien it is found that none make their appearance; for 
we have seen seeds, which on a trial (in pots) seemed 
very good, produce nothing but common annual weeds 
when sown and left exposed to these depredators. Scarce 
a pile escaped them, save here and there a plant of 
Clover or Trefoil. The seedsmen in these cases often 
get unjustly blamed, while an enemy has been silently 
undoing all the work. 
3rdly. In particular situations, as those exposed to 
more than ordinary wear and tear from the traffic over 
them, the ground must be more than ordinarily rich and 
good in order to support the trying circumstances it is 
placed in. The same observations also hold good in slopes 
and other exposed situations, when a bright sunshine 
is more apt to affect an inclined plane, or rounded bank, 
than a place level, or nearly so. We urge particular 
attention to this point, for in many instances, where it 
has not been attended to, the slopes present a scorched- 
up appearance immediately a few hot days set in in 
summer; and as they are generally in such positions as 
to present themselves always to view, it behoves the 
operator, when preparing such things, to keep in mind 
that more than the ordinary amount of good stuff is 
wanted for slopes and other places presenting a steep 
angle to any direction likely to be affected by the sun. 
Having said that slopes ought to be indulged with 
good materials, we may as well give young amateurs a 
hint, that in laying out or forming such banks, an incline 
called “ two to one,” is steep enough for most purposes, 
which is a base of two feet to every foot perpendicular; 
we are aware that ground-work is often steeper than 
that, but it is not so well, aud, of course, it is more 
exposed to droughts than when of more moderate in¬ 
clination. Such places ought always to be carefully 
turfed over, for unless done so, it often happens the 
loose earth gets displaced, and the feature of the plane 
is broken at a place where it ought to be retained in 
great exactness. 
It is needless to add, that when it is determined to 
sow seeds the stones must be carefully removed from 
the top, and even those likely to work to the top ought 
to be removed, for many which are a little below the 
surface at sowing time get to it afterwards, by the soil 
shrinking on all sides of them, aud rolling is but an in¬ 
effectual way of disposing of them afterwards ; certainly, 
it must be rolled, and that frequently, but the roller 
will never press the stone any lower than just level with 
the earth-work, and, consequently, liable to obstruct the 
scythe, &c., ever afterwards. 
We may conclude this article by calling on the in¬ 
genious friends of horticulture to set their inventive 
wits to work, and see if a mowing or grass-cutting 
machine cannot be contrived free from the defects com¬ 
plained of in the machines wc have; for, while ingenuity 
has been put to the test to furnish implements or 
machines for objects ■ which before required but little 
labour, it certainly reflects but little credit to the me¬ 
chanical portion of the horticultural world that the 
important and laborious duty of cutting a large breadth 
of grass should have been so little studied—for while 
rival “fumigators” and “budding knives” strive for 
the honours of public patronage, the old scythe, scarcely 
