The record-union., 1891-03-15
PEDIGREE GRASS.
How 1t is Proposed to Grow 1t in
Central Park.
No More keep off the Grass,' Signs
They Are Now to Read, IS ssWaIk on
the Grass''-NoveI Theory of Con-
necticut Yankee.

The New York Sun has the following
novel account of grass experiment in
lawn cultivation:
''Please Walk on the Grass would look
like astrange invitation to the frequenters
OF Central Park, but Mr.. Woolson says it
is sure to be issued. Mr.. Woolson is the
superintendent Of park gardeners, and at
this moment he is in doubt whether to
esteem himself the happiest or most mis-
erable man in New York. All the trouble
comes of his associating with a man
named 0lcott-James b. i'll full-a Con-
necticut Yankee. Mr.. Olcott is a grass
sharp. He has been a sort of modern
Nebuchadnezzar for the last forty years,
and he can distinguish one sort of grass
from the other by the taste. For years
he confined the satisfaction of his gram
nivorous instinct to three or four New
England States. But III an evil hour
Professor Johnson of Yale University
told MIN that there We're acres Of grass in
| Central Park, and then Mr.. Woolson's
trouble began. Olcott came right down
to the city and began lying about in spots
studying the grass in Central Park until
the people took him for an habitual sui
eide After he had kept this up for a
week he waved his hand with a compre-
hensive gesture so as to include all the
lawns OF Central Park and said to Mr.
WoolSon:
''It's very bad.''
Whenever they came to what the
superintendent of gardens esteemed Il
particularly fine piece OF lawn, Olcott
was ready with his insidions poison. He
showed that no two contiguous square
yards Of lawn We're alike. He proved
that the Park Department had been
spending thousands of dollars Il year for
sod to make Il mere crazy quit OF what
had hitherto been called the finest lawns
in America. He showed that the wrong
Kind Of grass had been planted under the
trees anu along the walks, and lie spoke
with sneerS and loathing of those NINA
tory little boards that say: keep off the
grass" If the right kind OF grass We're
planted along the walks and few feet
inward, that legend not only could, but
must be changed to please walk on the
grass" If the grass called 'poa annuap'
were placed beside the walks all would
be well, because if that grass isn't trodden
upon it dies. Olcott affirmed that he had
lot of this poa annual in his grass
garden, as he calls it, and that he made it
religious duty to tramp on the stuff
whenever he came near il. But Olcott
wasn't done with the subject. He showed
that the grass was rot only heterogen-
eouS, so to speak, but that almost every
! square foot of it was 1narred with
weeds; that there was ugly white clover
Ill all the lawns, and that the Kentucky
blue grass will not endure the drouth that
is coming one of these fine summers.
Mr.. Olcott, who is one of the experts
employed at the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station, has proved that
grass culture is in its infancy, and that it
is possible to have thoroughly uniform
lawns that in q few years will rival the
ancient turfs of England. He finds that
even the famous Newport lawns are
wit
grass garden is an important part of his
farm, TWO miles from South Manchester.
Here he has laid out patch after patch of
grass, each four feet square, and sepa-
rated from its neighbor by two feet of bare
ground. These patches extend for about
300 feet, and the grass garden is nearly as
beautiful as flower garden. Some Of
the grass was propagated from sod having
q pedigree 200 years old. 1t is not unusual
| for English immigrants to bring over q
| bit of the old sod, and from such immi-
grants Mr.. Olcott has begged grass plants
for the purpose of propagation. He says
that there is not the slightest difficulty in
growing grass with a pedigree, and it is
his highest ambition to go abroad and get
parent stems from some of the 2,000-year,
old lawns OF Great Britain.
His plan of propagation is beautifully
simple. He goes to an old parture and
searches with diligence until he has
lOuliu Dib Vi gFOUlHl cONGTci WIN grass
OF one sort. With odd implements of his
own invention he takes out all the visible
| weeds, and then he cuts n rectangular
sod l0Xl2 inches. He takes this home
and divides it, if it seems best, into bits
an inch square, when the work of propa-
cation begins. Each bit is placed in a
piece of mechanically sterilized earth,
and carefully tended. In a few weeks
every square inch has increased to
square foot Then the process of sub
division is repeated, and in the course of
three or four months the original sod has
spread out into "A small lawn. Mr.. Olcott
created lawn last summer in the sterile
yard OF Professor Jackson's house in New
Haven. 1t is bleak spot, shaded with
trees, but grass planted in May had thick
ened into beautiful turf by September.
Mr.. Olcott insisted that with proper at
tention it is quite possible not only to OBJ
tain uniform lawns by sodding and by
propagation directly from the plant, but
also by propagation from seed. AS things
are now, the man who sows grass seed
never knows what the harvest will be.
Ii Mr.. Woolson can have his way, the
Olcott system will be applied at once to
the city's lawns and grass plots. Already
neat little boards 10xl2 inches have been
prepared for use in the work. There is
plenty OF excellent grass in all the parks,
and where particularly fine bit is found.
one of these little boards viii be laid down
and sod of its Dimensions Will be cut
out. Another sod of the everyday kind
will be substituted in it's place, and the
chunk cut out viii be subjected to the OIL
colt process of propagation.
But Mr.. Woolson expects to improve
upon the process. His scheme is to have
| q winter grass garden-in fact, a great big
grass green-house-where the process Of
propagation can be carried on aIl5winter
Then. at the opening of spring, the vari-
Gus kinds of grass propagated will be set
out in patches four feet square, with the
object of further propagation and of
showing what can be done. Mr.. Olcott,
who thinks grass the most beautiful
thing on earth, would like to see the
| open air grass garden laid out along one
| of the most frequented drives of Central
Park and in conspicuous spot; but Mr..
Woolson inclines to a site a little west of
the circle, near the northern extremity of
the park. Superintendent Parsons may
decide against both sites. Perhaps one of
the green houses near Tenth street, on
the east side of the park, will be used for
the winter grass garden. The posSibil-
tiles of propagation are limited only by
the available space. Mr.. Woolson would
separate the bit of sod-not into twenty
square inches, but into five hundred bits
if necessary, and he says that in a few
weeks each bit would be spread to the
size of the original sod. By way of Illus
tration, he tweaked tiny clump of grass
out of the ground and showed that it
could be separated into at least fifteen
roots, each of which would grow and
spread. Mr.. Olcott's fertilizer has for its