148 
II o u s e 
& Garden 
Philadelphia’s notable new Hotel Sylvania has been fitted 
throughout with McKinney Hinges. LeRoy B. Rothschild 
was the Sylvania’s architect; John B. Wiggins Company 
the contractors; hardware supplied by N. E. Henderson Co. 
The hotel door's contenting magic! 
AS the door swings mutely open, a step brings you into 
l \ your own room’s welcome privacy. At your touch 
the door easily shuts, . . . shuts you off in tranquil 
withdrawal. Behind that door you stay as aloof as you 
please, . . . yet a host of skilful servitors alertly awaits 
your summons. The magic doors of a great modern hotel! 
In planning such superb hotels as the Sylvania, they 
make sure of doors that will seclude each guest, yet never 
obtrude on his need for quiet. They chose McKinney 
Hinges for the Sylvania, because the experience of many 
other fine hotels has proved these sturdy, graceful, unrelax¬ 
ing metal sinews for silent-working doors. 
From 1885, right on through the years, our effort has 
been to make McKinney Hinges so well that no builder 
can do better than choose them for an) 7 door. 
If you plan to build a home, “Suggestions for the Home 
Builder” will be useful for the interesting and practical 
data it includes with its informing story about McKinney 
Hinges. Phis book, and one on hanging garage doors 
properly, will be promptly sent for the asking. Address: 
McKINNEY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Western Office, Wrigley Building, Chicago 
McKINNEY 
Hindes and Butts and Hardware 
.4 smooth expanse of well kept lawn, bordered •with flowers, and a 
double rank of trim clipped trees, is a pleasant, restful sight and 
an ideal playground 
SOME HINTS on the CARE of LAWNS 
D IFFERENT qualities of turf are 
required for different purposes. 
First, there is the undulating pleasure 
lawn, the raison d'etre of which is a 
matter of ornament. This should pre¬ 
sent a rich fresh green all the year 
round, and in choosing the grass for 
these lawns it should be remembered 
that where parts of it are heavily over¬ 
shadowed by trees, a strong growing 
mixture, which might include a little 
white clover, should be used. 
Secondly, there is the type of lawn 
constructed to withstand much wear, 
of which the tennis lawn is the main 
example. Here the two essentials are 
a firm and level surface with perfect 
draining. The grass should be strong 
and fine, and clover must not occur as 
it deadens play and stains the balls. 
It must be remembered that with 
lawns nature is not allowed a free hand 
as with other forms of plant life, where 
impoverishment of the soil is largely 
made good through natural agencies. 
Grass takes nourishment out of the 
soil all the year round and the earth 
is very seldom given the benefit of 
even the mowing machine clippings. 
However scientifically a lawn may have 
been laid, and however excellent the 
treatment meted out to it, the soil re¬ 
quires periodical feeding. Thus a dress¬ 
ing of a good lawn compost at least 
once a year is necessary. 
NOURISHMENT FOR LAWNS 
For a lawn that is thin and patchy, 
a remedy will be found, provided the 
soil is not too poor, in thorough scari¬ 
fying with an iron rake and subsequent 
treatment with a renovating compost 
made up of leaf mould, well-rotted 
stable manure, wood ash, bone meal, 
and a little ground lime. This must 
be well mixed, passed through a yf" 
sieve, and spread evenly over the sur¬ 
face of the lawn; then brushed in and 
rolled. The autumn is the time for 
this; in the following spring (March) 
a good mixture of grass seed should be 
sown. 
SYMPTOMS OF BAD DRAINAGE 
The appearance of mossy and fun¬ 
goid growths or the presence of many 
worm casts often indicate that drainage 
is bad—a much more serious problem. 
In chronic cases this causes water¬ 
logging, but the first mentioned symp¬ 
toms are a warning that the matter 
requires attention. To make quite 
sure whether faulty drainage is at the 
root of the trouble, it is desirable to 
dig several test holes to a depth of 
three feet. If (it is assumed that the 
period is one of average rainfall) no 
more than an inch or so of water 
stands in them at the end of a week 
or ten days it is clear that the drainage 
is satisfactory; four to six inches of 
water denotes that it needs improve¬ 
ment. This will involve the stripping 
of turf and topsoil and the running of 
a 4" main agricultural drain. In a 
heavy soil this would be laid at a depth 
of 2' 6" and deeper in a lighter 
soil. This main should be connected 
up with a subsidiary piped in herring¬ 
bone fashion at from 10 to 30 apart 
according to the heaviness of the 
subsoil. 
TURF FOR TENNIS 
In the case of tennis courts and 
grass paths which have been worked 
bare, the best course is re-turfing. The 
turf should first be mown with a 
scythe or lawn mower, rolled and hand 
weeded. Cut to an even thickness of 
iy 2 ". The ground will have been pre¬ 
pared meantime for receiving the new 
turf, and if the soil is heavy a thin 
dusting of fine ashes might be given 
before laying the turf. This done, it 
should be well beaten and a dressing of 
fine loam spread over the surface, and 
left for six or eight weeks to allow the 
roots to become established. 
LAWN MOWERS 
The successful maintenance of lawns 
requires also, of course, thorough and 
regular mowing. On lawns covering 
an area of less than half an acre a 
hand mower would be sufficient; on 
larger lawns a power machine has been 
found to be not only a time saving, 
but a labor saving device. It has been 
estimated that with one of the smaller 
types of power lawn mowers a half¬ 
acre lawn can be cut in an hour or 
an hour and a half. Its operation re¬ 
quires no more skill than does the run¬ 
ning of a hand mower. Many owners 
of suburban homes make a hobby of 
personal care of their lawns and 
find recreation and pleasure in the 
operation of power mowers. By re¬ 
moving the hard work it makes the 
mowing of an acre or less an easy 
morning or evening task that is of 
much benefit to persons who are con¬ 
fined during the day. 
If the lawn is being remade a good 
time to do the seeding is immediately 
after a slight fall of snow, sowing the 
seed upon the snow, so that when it 
melts the seed will enter the ground 
(Continued on page 158) 
