Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-25
GRASSES AnDLAwNs.

SuOl6CG Oh the N46G4AIAAC A0NbuAO AA@Ssy
Evenlng-Dr. Jenkins Gives an I'M
teresting Description OF the Ideal |
Farm.
The fourth of the mechanic course of |
lectures was delivered last evening in
North Sheffield hall, before large audi
ence. The speaker, DR.. E. h. Jenkins,
was one of inestimable interest, and his
subject, eGrasses and Lawns" was made
far from dull. The following is an ex-
tract: The first thing that ever happened
to ACKNOWLEDGMENT, King of Babylon, was
to be sent to grass by divine mandate.
The word grass originally meant any
young tender growth, small heritage of
every kind. Later the meaning has been
narrowed so as to exclude every thing but
q single botanical family-the true grasses.
From the seeds of these large part of the
daily food of the human race is made.
Grasses are distinguished from other mem
beers of the plant families from the fact
that they have fbrous roots; slender, usu-
ally round and never triangular stems with
Joints or modes which are always short
and solid; while the stems between the
joints are very much longer and usually
hollow. The leaves, which are arranged
alternately on the stem, spring from the
Joints and for a certain distance envelope
the stem making sheath, then grow
away from the stem making the leaf
blade. The veins of the. leaves are al
ways parallel. The flowers have no con-
spicuous petals but the essential organs,
the stamens and pistils are surrounded
| and protected by several short scales or
| chaffy tracts.
There are known and described some
300 genera Of grasses, including from 8, 200
to $500 species. Of these, more than 12O
| grow without cultivation within thirty
miles Of New Haven. Grass is as old as
creation, but any real accurate knowledge
of it as new almost as the present century.
| Seeding to grass was never practiced until
somewhere about 1870, when it was done
in England. City and town, as well as
| country are alike interested in grass. The
amount of money annually wasted in ou1
cities in fruitless efforts to make upland
pasture grasses grow in the dense shade Of
| fir trees, to cover a rail composed of NOR.
tar, brick dust and shavings with rich
| thick turb and to make tussack grasses
change their nature and grow into 6
smooth even surface by spanking them
with two inch plank till they look smooth
things would 60 far towards the purchase
oCSSA
Connecticut farms.
There are differences of opinions as te
the uses of a lawn. There are places abou
| a city house which are seeded with grass
or turfed over under the mistaken impress
| sion that it is the cheapest way of treating
them. In many of these places asphal
pavement will thrive better and in the enc
prove cheaper and of more beauty. A
lawn should serve the practical ends O.
keeping the earth cool, of holding it il
place by protecting it from washing by tn
rain.
Moderate grazing will benefit it and tn
place will furnish an admirable setting TO
the Attorney Holstein COW that 20,
wish to have admired. But while usefu
the lawn ought to be in itself beautiful
and rest to the eye; smooth, even an,
thrifty. If that is accomplished it ough
to be spared the impertinences Of fowe
beds, in which the gardener sets out brigh
little flowers until they have done bias
soning, then takes them away behind tn
house and digs in new lot. There
nothing restful about such a lawn. Yo
are excited, and wonder what may hav
beds.
This week it is crocusses, next it
hyacinths, then pansies and tulips. AL
delightful things and charming to have a
sort of greeting to the wayfarer if tn
place is to be made flower garden, witt
turf simply to hold it together But tn
idea of a lawn, I take it, is to be broad
orderly surface, of springing grass, fra
grant, soft, natural, with as little obtru
sive art about it as may be. A solemn oil
tree standing in it, mysterious thicket q
evergreens or shrubs, if the lawn be larg
enough may add to it's beauty
| nd f0rfnnotn r1rp
to have several acres, my bucolic taste
not shocked by the presence of mild eye
cows. But cast iron deer, zinc goddesse
scantily clothed with an annual coat c
paint, tripods bearing cracked iron pots
which have done their last soap maxim
and are now crowned with vermillion an
vines, let there not be SO much as name
among us as becoming lawns. If the1
: must be pathway through it, let it b
, as unnoticeable as possible, and as sol
under foot.
The first great need of grass is perms
nent water supply. One can manage t
feed it tolerably by top-dressing There
needed soil SO compact that water vii
not run through it like sieve during an
after rain. The ideal lawn, it seems
me, should be composed of fine grass, max
ing a close, even sward, without an
punches or tussocks. The lawn shout
| harbOr no weeds nor be spotted by colo
MES of grasses different in color and tex
ture from the rest. 1t is not to
much to say that there is n
seed in our market to-day whicl
can be depended upon to make law
under conditions as to soil planting, etc
Almost every leading seed man has hi
pet seed mixture doctored to be com
bination of grasses specially suited TO
lawns but proving in almost every case Oh
examination to be a mixture of gras
seeds good, bad and Indifferent sold at
tremendous advance on the price for tn
same seeds unmixed. The so-calle,
Central Park lawn grass seet
consists mainly of Kentucky blu
grass, red top and white Glove
with some timothy and few bad weeds
The first named Of these varieties is
fairly good grass for lawn, red top, an,
of the fine variety is excellent, but if, as i
most likely the case, it is the tall western
red top, it is unsuitable. White Glove
is not fit for a perfect lawn, and timoth,
Ia coarse rank thing, would be as mucl
out of place in a lawn as prize fighter IL
a symphony concert.