39 
WORMS IN PUTTING AND OTHER GREENS. 
By PETER W- LEES, 
Greenkeeper to the Mid-Surrey Golf Club, Richmond. 
To keep a putting green in good playing condition all the year round, 
the grass must be kept in as clean and healthy a condition as possible, and the 
surface must be firm and true. 
It is practically impossible to achieve this result on greens infested with 
worms. The very action of the worms continually throwing casts keeps the 
surface soft, and the daily brushing and rolling which is required to make 
the green at all playable tends to destroy the finer grasses, and in the course 
of time they disappear and give place to coarse tufts and bare places. 
We all know the discomforts of playing on “wormy” greens, and I 
think it is pretty generally recognised that the worms must be removed if 
good greens are required; and the question arises, How are we to get rid of 
the worms without injuring the grass? 
Some people say, “ If you kill out the worms you will surely at the 
same time kill your turf ” ; but my answer to this is, come and see my 
putting-greens at the Mid-Surrey, where I have killed out all the worms, 
and I have at the present time, November, some of the finest turf to be seen 
anywhere, as it is clean, close, and firm, and plays as well as it did during 
the summer. 
I treated several of my greens over a year ago, and they are to-day 
quite free from worms, and not only have they been in constant play ever 
since, but they will be played throughout the winter, without a rest and 
practically without brushing and rolling. 
There are several cures for removing worms from greens, and I think 
I have tried them all now, but at last I have got a real effective one 
in Carters' Worm-Killer. It is the simplest, safest, and most efficient cure 
I have tried. 
There is not the slightest danger of harming the turf, no matter how you 
use it; and that, I think, is a great point in its favour, as there are certain 
cures which are no doubt harmful to the worms, but at the same time damage 
the turf, which makes the cure worse than the disease; and, again, some are 
deadly poisons. Now, if Carters’ directions are carefully carried out, there is not 
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