Evening star., 1926-04-17

Are lawns and grass plots Of Wash
ington residences in worse condition
than those Of any other city in the
country?
This Is the opinion Of II. c. Gauss
who has written us a letter, following
our article the first of the week upon
the subject of grass. Mr.. Gauss says
In part:
II am convinced that the trouble
with your lawn, suggested in your
interesting article of last evening
is that you are growing Summer grass
instead of one Of the lawn grass
varieties.
Summer grass is especially suited
to the soil in Washington, especially
to the alluvial formation Of the high
er portions Of the city. Within the
original City of Washington. which
was largely inarshy land. the natura,
soil contains some proportion OF
humus, but there Is practically none
in the silt and gravel formation north
OF Florida avenue.
summer grass grows vigorously
in its season on this soil. but 1t Ii
late in appearing. succumbs te
drought and Is killed by the first
frost. Probably In the course of q
few weeks you will find your lawT
sprouting In a satisfactory manner
after series of warm rains.
ut is the general idea to credi,
this growth to the sprinkling of bone
meal or other slight attention which
the lawns generally receive at this
time of the year, but the growth
will occur in most cases as a natural
result of the seasonal growth of this
variety of grass.
THE deplorable condition of the
lawns of Washington, and especially
the lawns In the public parks, Is q
matter to which l have given a gooC
deal of attention for several years
The desirable lawn is that which
will remain green from early In the
Spring until late in the Fall. ant
will resist the dry period usual ir
the Washington Summer.
There are very few such lawns
in Washington and most of those
which now exist are comparatively
new lawns which have been made
by the expensive process OF digging
up the entire lawn, manuring 1t heav
lily and then replanting.
~ T. \
zone such lawn Is in front OF the
Chamber of Commerce Building and
another in front Of ., but there
are signs that both of these will
succumb to the results OF soil ex-
haustion through the heavy growth
of grass which has been secured.
continued Mr.. Gauss.
1.-The Hale lawn on the corner OF
Sixteenth and X streets and another
residence on the southwest corner
of Sixteenth and I streets are good
examples of the temporary nature
of the results secured by this proc
ess. During my observations some
hundreds OF dollars have been ex-
pended on these two lawns with very
moderate results.
THE best kept lawn in Washing
ton was recently destroyed by the
change OF residence on Dupont
Circle into a business property, and
this lawn was maintained in fine
condition through many years by the
only effective method of lawn
maintenance, which is to seed liber-
ally with the variety of grass select
ed, preferably blue grass or Ger
man bent. in this climate, and to TOP
dress frequently with a finely divided
soil containing a high proportion Of
humus. So far as ! have been able
to determine, there is nothing which
will take the place of this method
In maintaining d satisfactory lawn
'If you will consider the compost
ton of bone meal. ! think you viii
see that 1t is merely an accessory
and not a real lawn food. 1t Is. Of