158 
House & Garden 
-when you say ' 
you mean ''Hot Water” 
A modern home without the convenience of run¬ 
ning water is simply unthinkable. 
And yet when you consider that nine out ot ten 
ordinary household tasks call, not just for water, but 
for hot water, you realize that an adequate hot water 
supply is the true convenience. It is absolutely in¬ 
dispensable to the proper running of a home. 
Time Payment Plan 
Any Gas Company, Gas Ap¬ 
pliance or Plumbing dealer 
will gladly explain how you 
can buy a Humphrey Heater 
on convenient monthly pay¬ 
ments 
can be depended upon to give you 
an abundant 6upply of hot water at all 
times. A supply sufficient to meet the 
countless needs that arise in every 
household every day of the year. 
Humphrey supremacy among water 
heating devices is due to these qualities: 
1. Convenience. For hot water anywhere 
in the house any time of the day or night, 
simply turn a faucet. It comes instantly and 
runs as long as you want. 
2. Reliability. Exclusive Humphrey pat¬ 
ented perfections insure complete freedom 
from costly breakdowns and guarantee 
longer usefulness by many years. 
3. Economy. The cost of Humphrey hot 
water service is less than that of any other 
heating method known. 
If this is the hot water service you 
want in your home buy a Humphrey 
Automatic Heater and you will 
be more than satisfied. In fact we 
guarantee that. 
“Humphrey Hot Water Service ” is a 
booklet that will help you find what you have 
been looking for. Mail the attached coupon today. 
HUMPHREY COMPANY 
Kalamazoo, Michigan 
( Div. Ruud, Mfg. Co.) 
“BE SURE IT’S A HUMPHREY ” 
HUMPHREY COMPANY, Kalamazoo, Michigan 
Please send me a copy of your booklet, “Humphrey 
Hot Water Service,” without obligation. 
Name_ 
Address . 
Some Hints on the Care of Lawns 
( Continued, from page 148) 
in a natural way and with sufficient 
moisture in the soil. 
It cannot be urged too strongly that 
the lawn ■ area be prepared well. A 
fine showing can be made on a thin 
coating of topsoil, but it will last only 
until the roots find that there is in¬ 
sufficient nourishment underneath. It 
is far better to make the initial expense 
of providing seven or eight inches of 
good topsoil and obtain a lawn with 
the real value of permanence. And it 
is not only necessary that the top 
eight inches should be composed of 
good soil. The subsoil, if it is at all 
inclined to be stiff, should be well 
broken up with plow or spade, so that 
there may be adequate drainage. 
There are many good fertilizers with 
which to enrich the topsoil, but none 
of them have the substantial, humus¬ 
providing qualities of well rotted cow 
manure. Most of the prepared ma¬ 
nures, while they are neat in their ap¬ 
plication and so effective that they 
should be used to a certain extent, as 
well as other kinds of prepared fertil¬ 
izers, are comparatively temporary in 
the effect they have on the new lawn. 
If well rotted cow manure is dug 
thoroughly into the soil, some of the 
quick acting fertilizers might be used 
with it to give the grass a sudden 
start. 
A splendid mixture of grass seed for 
the average lawn is one composed of 
sixteen parts of Kentucky blue grass, 
four parts of recleaned redtop and one 
part of white clover. Eventually the 
blue grass will predominate, forcing out 
the other varieties; but it matures more 
slowly and needs the early assistance 
of the rapid and thick growing redtop 
and clover. One pound of this mixture 
should be sown to every three hun¬ 
dred square feet of lawn surface. It 
should be sown heavily to get a thick 
crop of grass. The best results are 
obtained when the grass seed is sown 
on a still day when the fine seed will 
fall evenly. The ground should be 
fairly cool and rather moist. Probably 
the best method of sowing is to broad¬ 
cast the seed by hand, swinging the arm 
low and going over the area twice, in 
two directions at right angles to each 
other. After the sowing the seeded 
surface should be raked over very 
lightly and then rolled well. It should 
be watered often and thoroughly. 
After it has grown sufficiently tall and 
thick frequent mowings should be 
commenced. 
In almost every early spring there is 
some sodding to be done. Path edgings 
in a newly made garden, a bald spot in 
the lawn from where a tree or shrub 
has been removed, or broad areas which 
must be surfaced quickly—are all cases 
where sodding is a more satisfactory 
procedure than seeding. While sodding 
is a practice as old as gardening itself, 
it is not always correctly done and 
disappointments are frequent; so the 
restatement of the simple but rigid 
rules is apt to come not amiss. 
The first thing is to prepare the 
ground for the reception of the sod. 
The soil should be deep, well drained, 
and, at the surface, very finely pulver¬ 
ized. If it cannot be particularly deep 
or especially well drained it must still 
be raked and fined perfectly on top; 
for this is where the fine, tender root¬ 
lets of the sod make their contacts with 
the new ground. If this surface is hard 
or lumpy the roots will have consid¬ 
erable difficulty getting a start and the 
new grass will be correspondingly un¬ 
even in its development. This surface 
should be slightly moist but not wet 
enough to form a damp crust. 
The next step is to choose sod for 
cutting which is growing upon ground 
uninfested by stones. It should natu¬ 
rally be grass of good quality. It should 
be mowed closely and sprinkled before 
it is cut into strips. The mowing is 
necessary because the roots will inevi¬ 
tably become at least slightly damaged, 
and a balance between the upper and 
lower parts of the grass plant must be 
maintained. A line should be marked 
along which the sod should be cut with 
a grass-edger or path-trimmer. The strips 
of sod should be cut to a width of one 
foot, and the most convenient length 
has been found to be about three feet. 
After the strips have been cut, one 
man will lift the sod by inserting a 
sharp spade between the sod and the 
ground and by working the spade 
from side to side. He will take care 
to cut below the roots. As he cuts 
the sod loose with the spade, another 
man rolls the strip compactly. If the 
freshly cut sod is not put in place im¬ 
mediately it should be sprinkled and 
protected from the sun and wind. It 
is wise, however, to see that it gets 
put down within a few hours. 
When the strips of sod are laid they 
should be set tightly against each other. 
The soil underneath should be evened 
wherever the sod is so thick or thin 
that it might produce an unsmooth 
surface. All cracks or breaks should 
be filled by sifting in finely pulverized 
top soil. 
After the sod has been put in place 
it should be sprinkled thoroughly and 
tamped well. Care should be taken to 
avoid loosening the sod during tamping. 
Mowing, tamping and sprinkling must 
be kept up continually until it has be¬ 
come established. 
The bane of the lawn’s existence 
consists, more than anything else, in the 
matter of weeds. Nothing else can be 
quite so troublesome and, if neglected, 
so devastating. Fortunately, most of 
the objectionable weeds on lawns are 
annuals and they may be removed in 
the course of a single season by pre¬ 
venting them from going to seed. This 
is where mowing becomes particularly 
beneficial. On the other hand there 
are perennial weeds, like thistles, dan¬ 
delions and docks which, to be eradi¬ 
cated, must be entirely removed—to 
the last tiny rootlet. If only part of 
the roots are pulled up the rest will 
thrive underground, spread, and become 
in the end more troublesome than was 
the original plant. A drop or two of 
gasoline can be almost as effective as 
a well handled knife. 
The lawn has other enemies than 
weeds. Insects manage to make them¬ 
selves objectionable, and often they are 
much more difficult to fight than dan¬ 
delions and crab grass. Angleworms 
may be destroyed by a spray composed 
of two gallons of boiling water in which 
one pound of ordinary salt has been 
dissolved and to which one pound of 
corrosive sublimate has been added. 
This mixture should be diluted in four 
gallons of water which will make a 
stock solution that may be kept in a 
convenient barrel. The actual spray is 
made by putting one pint of this stock 
solution in sixteen gallons of water. By 
spraying the lawn until it is white with 
a spray made by dissolving three 
pounds of arsenate of lead in fifty gal¬ 
lons of water, army worms may be 
destroyed. 
