Meet Scotts Research 
...in winter as well as summer. 
What is it that enables a company to 
confidently launch a new product, make 
recommendations, stick by them, have the 
answers on new developments year after 
year? It’s a strong research department and 
that is one of the most important Scott 
activities. 
Over the course of a year dozens of new 
chemicals or natural materials are developed 
for evaluation in the agricultural field. 
Although many appear quite promising in 
preliminary plot experiments, they must be 
lawn-proven to our high standards of satis- 
faction to be of interest. Before large scale 
testing is undertaken, these materials must 
undergo careful screening in our green- 
house. Many never get beyond that pre- 
liminary. Even if they survive the early 
rounds, hardly one out of twenty proves 
of practical value in the Lawn Care pro- 
gram. 
@ 
“Lawn grass is more important to more 
people than any other crop” according to 
an agricultural experiment station official. 
He goes on to point out that grass is of 
major concern to everyone whether living 
in city or country. Besides its usual im- 
portance on lawns and parks, grass is a land 
conserver, a soil improver, an increaser of 
real estate values. 
Faster growth after regular feeding 
Iz Is gratifying to the editors of LAWN 
CARE to note the increasing interest in 
out-of-door living and the lawn as a hobby. 
This year over a half million pocket size 
condensations of the Lawn Care booklets 
will be made available to their workers 
by some of America’s larger corporations 
including General Motors, U S _ Steel, 
Armstrong Cork and others. 
This type of literature is distributed to 
personnel through the plant reading rack 
service setup. Maybe there is something to 
the oft repeated statement ““A worker with 
a green thumb is a happy one”. 
Fertilizer Saves Water 
In a recent address, the Secretary of 
Agriculture, Mr Ezra Taft Benson, 
reported on the moisture needs of 
crops. He said the Department’s in- 
vestigators showed that corn grown on 
claypan soil required much less water 
when the soil is heavily fertilized than 
when it is unfertilized. The ratio was 
more than three to one in favor of the 
heavy feeding program. The actual 
figure quoted — 21,000 gallons of wa- 
ter were needed to produce a bushel 
of corn (corn and grass are in the 
same botanical family) on unfertilized 
ground compared with 5600 gallons 
where adequate plant food was applied. 
In the same talk, the secretary point- 
ed out that use of fertilizers is “‘one of 
the highly important factors in bring- 
ing about a satisfactory diversion of 
thin, unsuitable soil from cultivated 
crops to grass”. 
Q He might have said that generous 
feeding is the answer to those who have 
only poor subsoil on which to develop a 
good lawn. Ep 
Borings show growth rings practically even for the 
two elms until 1940. From then on, the well-fed 
younger elm made twice as much growth as the 
older one, simply as a supplemental benefit from 
four times yearly Turf Builder to the lawn. 
