The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1916-03-03
Time To Fertilize Lawns

Washington, d. C.-Home owners
who wish to get the best results
from their lawns should begin to
work on them the last of February
or early in March, according to the
lawn specialists of the United States
Department of Agriculture. Too
many people delay giving any at
tention to their grass plots until the
weather becomes warm and thus lose
an opportunity to take advantage of
melting snow and the alternate night
freezing and thawing of the ground.
If the lawn has not already been
fertilized, some form of commercial
fertilizer should be. used at once.
Manure applied this late will not be
effective in most cases. Ground bone
is probably the best fertilizer to use,
although tankage and fish scraps,
some of which, however, have an un-
! pleasant smell, also give good re-
suits. Prepared sheep manure is an
excellent fertilizer for use at this
season. Cottonseed meal where OBJ
tainable at a low enough price may
be used to advantage. In connec-
tion with these fertilizers, however,
it is desirable to use some wood
ashes or other fertilizer containing
| potash. AS fertilizers with this ele-
| ment are unusually high priced this
year, the natural inclination will be
to use minimum quantities. With
soils that have been well fertilized in
the past, failure to use normal
amount of potash will probably not
affect the lawn badly in one season.
These fertilizers should be applied
at the earliest possible moment.
Temptation to get on the lawn and
clean it up is strong as soon as the
snow is gone and the weather begins
to settle. Impatience, however,
should be curbed until the ground is
settled fairly well so that footmarks
will not show in the turf. Where a
lawn has been trampled down dur
ing the winter or played upon when
it was soft in winter or early spring,
the owner should take steps to COM
pact its surface at the earliest pos
sible moment. This compacting,
however, should not be done until all
trash has been removed. As soon as
the ground is sufficiently settled SO
that rake does not dig into the
turf, the owner should rake it gent
ly with a wooden-toothed rake. Ere
quently, however, all that is neces-
sary is to pick off the litter. If
lawn has been covered with manure
in the fall, it will be necessary to
break the manure up with rake in
the spring, and remove some of the
coarser portions. A wooden rake is
best for this purpose, as it will leave
so much more of the fine material
upon the ground.
Do not rake off so much of the
manure that the lawn will have
thoroughly clean appearance. All of
the fine manure that the summer
growth of grass can possibly hide
should be self. 1t is surprising how
much litter the grass will obscure in
a lawn, as one or two heavy rains
will beat down quantity of such
material.
Before freezing weather is entire
ly over, fresh grass seed should be
sown, for it must be remembered
that only by repeated applications of
grass seed can a good lawn be pro-
duced. The ordinary seeding of
grass on a new lawn is l pound of
seed to every 400 square feet-that
is, to a piece 20 feet square. For re-
seeding lawn, one-tenth to one-half
of this amount should be used, ac-
cording to the condition of the lawn
at the time. For the northern part
of the United States, Kentucky blue
grass and redtop are the standard
varieties. However, where there are
many bare spaces it will be found
well to use some white clover. About
one-tenth the quantity of clover as Of
the other grasses mentioned will be
required.
Probably as good time as any to
apply grass seed will be some morn
ing when the ground is frozen, so
that when the ground thaws during
the middle of the day the sown seed
will be covered sufficiently to germi-
nate well. The most successful seed
ing is that done while the ground is
freezing little each night and thaw-
ing again in the day time. Many
people have success in sowing grass
seed upon light snowfall at a time
when the snow is likely soon to melt.
With either of these methods, how
ever, there is danger that birds will
eat some of the seed before it is COW
cred in the soil. In spite Of this,
however, there is a better chance of
getting good lawn by these meth
DDS than when the seed is sown on
land that will quickly cover it.
Grass cutting should begin just as
soon as the lawn mower can get
good hold. The very early cutting
may be made with the lawn mower
set close to the ground. AS soon as
the growth of grass becomes a little
less vigorous, the mower should be
set just as high as possible. This
high cutting should be done as fire.
quently as though the grass were be-
ing cut shorter