LAWN “LAWS” 
EVERY LAWN-MAKER SHOULD KNOW 
Before you make your lawn, consider your 
soil. A heavy soil, predominantly clay, can be 
lightened by the addition of sand and humus. 
A light soil can be improved with a top 
dressing of heavier soil, or by adding humus 
in the form of peat moss, or commercial 
humus. 
1 
Top dressing is always valuable in helping 
new seedlings and encouraging the spread of 
older grass, while leveling the lawn surface 
as well. Use a bushel of good, rich, weed- 
free soil to 100 square feet, with more in 
the low spots. 
Peat moss is a Valuable addition to light or 
heavy soils. It is an effective remedy for 
excessive dissipation of moisture, keeping 
the soil particles loose and friable. Either 
spade it into the soil or apply as a top 
dressing, at least half an inch deep. With a 
very heavy clay soil, use one inch or more. 
2 
Feed the soil before you seed, so that the 
planting to follow will not lack food for its 
all-important early growth. Feeding restores 
nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, etc., after 
plant growth has deprived the soil of these 
vital elements. 
Mix lawn food with top dressing or dis- 
tribute it evenly over the top dressing with 
a fertilizer spreader. Don’t use fresh man- 
ure; it usually contains weed seeds. We can 
supply you with lawn foods of the correct 
value for local and individual requirements. 
Consider tree feeding as part of your lawn- 
building campaign. If trees are well fed, they 
will not compete with grass for the nourish- 
ment from the soil they share. Ask us about 
methods, foods and equipment for fertilizing 
your trees effectively. 
3 
Seeding may be done by hand, or with a 
spreader. To decrease the possibility of leav- 
ing bare spaces, distribution should be made 
in two directions, one at right angles to the 
other. 
Do not skimp on seed, either in quality or 
distribution, for seed is the cheapest part of 
your lawn-making operation. Ample seeding 
insures the dense turf necessary during the 
early life of the lawn for checking the intro- 
duction and development of weeds. Beat the 
weeds with lots of seeds. 
The generally accepted rule for the 
amount of seed is one pound for each 200 
square feet, 
4 
Seed early in the season. Grass seed is not 
damaged by freezing temperature or any 
other weather condition except standing 
water. Long before you begin work on your 
flower garden, you can start your lawn, for 
seedlings need a chance to grow sturdy be- 
fore weeds germinate. While the frost is still 
in the ground, the checked or honeycombed 
condition of the soil provides ideal shelter 
for the seed without raking in. 
Planting necessarily delayed even until 
mid-summer is successful, however, if dili- 
gently followed by ample watering and 
weeding. But grass in the shade of trees 
thrives well all through the season only when 
sown early enough to get a good start be- 
fore the foliage has a chance to deprive it 
of food and light. Even though repeated 
seeding should be required, persistence here 
is sure to bring success. 
2 

Presenting a seed catalog 
that’s a practical working tool 
This is our annual seed catalog—but it’s really far more 
than that! 
You see, this book comes to you from a seedsman right 
in your own home territory .. . from one of your neigh- 
bors. As neighbors, we want to be helpful. 
So we’ve made our catalog into a book of gardening 
facts, above all else. We’ve crammed it full of the kind 
of down-to-earth information all gardeners want—the 
things they keep asking us about, year after year. 
We’re sure you'll find our book so useful and valuable 
you'll want to keep it around for a long, long time. 
We are glad to be able to report, too, that the lifting 
of the war clouds is beginning to show its effect on the 
supply of many things you need for your garden. How- 
ever, please don’t expect completely normal supplies 
of all items, just yet. Many things are still hard to get. 
But we’ll be doing our best, as usual, to take care of 
you. And we invite you most cordially to— 
DROP IN AND TALK IT OVER! 
5) 
Seed on a ealm day or early in the morning, 
when the seed will fall where you want it. 
If the frost is out of the ground, rake the 
seed into the soil lightly, or brush it in by 
dragging some light, flexible object, as a 
sack. Be sure you have the seed covered 
with one-eighth of an inch of fine soil or 
new top dressing. Now you are ready to 
roll lightly to bring soil particles into con- 
tact with the seed, 
6 
Rolling may be properly employed for press- 
ing the soil firmly around new seed and 
around grass roots disturbed by winter. Use 
a light water-ballast roller, empty to one- 
third full. Soil becomes compacted if rolled 
too often—or when wet and sticky. For 
leveling a lawn, use top dressing—never a 
roller. 
7 
Moisture. Every lawn has its special charac- 
teristics with respect to the amount of wa- 
ter required and the measures called for in 
retaining moisture. Note the foregoing rec- 
ommendations concerning the use of peat 
moss. 
To determine how much water you must 
use, look for the answer down beneath the 
surface. Cut a small plug of soil, two or 
three inches deep.*If only the upper inch is 
dry, normal watering is sufficient. But if the 
soil looks dry very much below that, use 
plenty of water for positive surface and sub- 
soil penetration. 
Ample watering is much better than mere 
“sprinkling’’ on almost any type of soil. It 
encourages deep roots well before the drier 
upper soil of hot summer days. High ground, 
especially if unshaded, will need more water 
than lower spots with bordering trees. 
