Middletown transcript., 1875-05-29
Aoritultural
The Care Of Laws.

uO Vdl0 VI 00Wos
Tn response to the inquiries Of a cor
respondent, the Country Gentlen,a'
. gives the following directions for th'
preparation of lawn and keeping it il
order.
If the surface is rough; there are tive
ways for making it smooth and even
} The first is by breaking up the whole
ground, working and reworking till
fine and mellow, and re-sceding or re-
turing. If the ground is re-seeded,
SOW at the rate of at least two bushels
Of grass seed per acre, and roll or brush
it in. Red-top, white clover and Ken
tucky blue grass will give good green
carpet If re-turfed, make the bare
surface perfectly even and level; cut
the turf from an old even pasture, with
straight edges. by means of q stretched
line, and then invert the pieces or
blocks on broad board, and scrape the
earth side perfectly even by means of a
sharp hoe. They will thus form an
even surface when laid, and rolling will
make the whole as smooth as a floor
The second mode of making an even
surface, is to apply sand or fine sandy
loan to the surface, and rake it level,
by which it will fll up all hollows or
depressions. and the grass will grow
through the sand. This is well adapt
ed to lawns which have but slight in
equalities of surface.
If the defect consists in the grass
being too thin or sparse on the lawn,
the whole surface may be loosened with
sharp steel rake Cor fine sharp har-
row on larger scale), and grass seed
sown as already directed and its ger
mination and growth will be greatly
assisted if the whole surface is dressed
with fine compost before sowing and
raking. In some instances, better
seeding will be effected by breaking up,
as already described.
If the lawn is defective from the
growth Of coarse grass or weeds, there
are two modes of treatment. One is to
pull up all the weeds, Immediately
after long rain, when the ground is
soft, or to cut them out with spud
md the other is to summer-fallow the
whole ground for one season, keeping |
he surface stirred and clean all the
lime, which will kill nearly all weeds. I
This is to be resorted to only in case 8
he lawn is full of weeds and in rather
desperate condition to warrant it. t
To keep lawn in good condition, .
pply top-drossing Of some fertilizer f
ate in autumn, spreading it perfectly
ven. Coarse manure is Objectionable ;,
'r two reasons, namely, its repulsive 8,
haracter all winter, whenever the =
round is bare Of snow; and the liza
ility to scatter foul seed in this way.
But if nothing better can be had, be :. =
areful to spread it perfectly even and :, -
OF leave it in Jumps. as we'll as to rake ? =
+ all the 6brous material left on the
round. early in spring Finely pull j,
srized compost answers we'll, or a !:
'mpost made of guano, or Of hen ;.
anure.. The latter may be uudiluted. l.
'ovidcd it is in fine powder, or it may
} made into fue compost with road
,st. On some soils, superphosphate %
lswers we'll on others it has no effect. us
he manure or composts may be ap- ~ ~
led in autumn; the more concen- o'
ated fertilizers early in spring.
The surface having been already iol
ade perfectly even, will require no ou
ore rolling than is given to it by the oe
wn mowers. When the whole lawn Gt
not more than an acre or SO, it may
kept cut short in perfect condition me
means Of a hand machine, and at tn.
fling expense. In early summer, sle
Zen the grass grows rapidly, it should vii
cut as often as every five days later
the season, not so often. This will the
able you always to "tread on velvet" wa