P U B L I S H ED IN F E B R U A R Y, M A R C H, A P R I L. A U G U ST A ND S E P T E M B ER BY O. M. S C O TT 8c S O NS CO., M A R Y S V I L L E, O H IO April 1939 T W E L F TH Y E AR Number 55 NEW THREAT TO DANDELIONS THE lawn weed which holds the spotlight each spring and provides a fertile field for wisecracking as well as for the inventive genius of lawn- makers, is the well known Dandelion. Its capers and the novel methods by which home owners have lain in its wake, have been interspersed through the pages of Lawn Care since the first in 1928. issue s u b j e ct T he again looms and primarily be- cause of the news value of a story w h e r e in "Dog Bites Dan- delion," we feel constrained to r e p r o d u ce a rather unique photograph. It is note- worthy to have a dog acclaimed for his help with a lawn problem. Hundreds of let- ters are received each year calling for some method of discouraging canine lawn activity. Some months ago a Lawn Care reader sent an intriguing newspaper clipping. It was apparently one of those down-in-the-corner stories which one suspects of being the offspring of an inspired imagination. The item told of a certain dog at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, that took care of the family's Dan- delion digging. Being a bit skeptical we wrote for the facts and got them along with a picture of the canny canine. Here she is, " Boots," pride of the Gallup family living at 408 Awixa Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan. " Parade of Youth" published in Wash- ington, D. C., carried the story soon after it appeared in the Ann Arbor News. We now quote from Mrs. Blanche Gallup who kindly re- sponded to our inquiry: " T he story a b o ut 4 Boots' pulling Dande- lions was really on the level. She has been doing it three years and learned it with- out special train- ing. We work in our g a r d en a great d e al and we think she got the i d ea from watching us dig. 'Boots' is a Toy Manchester Terrier and her digging does practically no damage to the lawn. She locates the Dandelions purely from smell and never makes a mistake. First she bites off the top, then proceeds to dig out the root. She keeps on digging until there is no trace of the root left. Then she passes on to the next plant. I have watched her from the house COPYRIGHT 1939 BY O M . SCOTT & SONS CO. many times digging as though her life depended on it. She has even become so excited while digging that she would snap and growl if we tried to stop her. She never molests any of the flow- ers or any other plants. My son 'Buddy' fills in the holes afterwards and plants grass seed and in a short time the lawn is as good as new." For the Hall of Weed-Killing Fame we nominate "Boots" and "Buddy." Weeds are no match for such a team. Other Suggestions While we are on the Dandelion sub- ject again, it seems opportune to in- clude a few more comments from readers. The first comes from Mr. Gage H. Avery, La Grange, Illinois: "I have no Dandelions in my lawn because for about fifteen years I have gone over it several times during the growing season and applied just a few drops of gasoline on the crown of each plant. Formerly I did this with an ordinary machine oil-can which re- quired stooping over but for several years now I have been using one of the 'Dandelion Canes.' You can doctor the Dandelions very rapidly while strolling about the lawn, using this cane. " Incidentally, for several years I have been using soiled naphtha. This knocks them dead as it will Burdock, Plantain, and other weeds. In some cases where the ground is hard in the summer time, I have lifted out Dandelion roots about one foot long which had shrunk up to the size of a match a few days after killing them as above. The naphtha does not spread on the ground more than an inch or two which space is shaded by the Dandelion It evaporates immediately and apparently has no permanent effect on the soil." leaves. Another Idea from Illinois From Mr. E. M. Moore, Vice Presi- dent, Barretts, Inc., Joliet, Illinois, we have the following: "I have noticed your remarks about Dandelions and I have quite overcome the Dandelion problem. It is a very simple method. I take an ordinary table knife and sharpen it to a point. When the Dandelions are in bloom I go out each noon and take the ones that are in bloom. I do not pretend to get those that are not in bloom. I cut them two or three inches under the ground and while other lawns around have many Dandelions I have not had a single bloom for two or three weeks." Michigan Customer Has Proposal The following suggestion is made by the Greenkeeper of the Golf Club at Glen Lake, Michigan, near Saginaw: " Dip toothpicks in sulphuric acid and stick them in the crown of the Dandelion plants. Leave them there a while and the plant absorbs the acid. Go around later and gather them up. The toothpicks also serve as markers to see if the plant is really killed." Elephant Appetites May we here acknowledge the re- ceipt of several copies of a cartoon from "Scotts Scrapbook," a King Syndicate feature in which the following appears: "Dandelions are a great delicacy to elephants. The big animals have been used at the Belfast, Ireland, Zoo to keep the lawns clear of this weed." So we take you from dogs to ele- phants in this further discussion of a subject which seems to have no bounds. # " My vacuum cleaner can be made to blow out as well as to 'inhale,' so I fill the spray container with the poison to be used and turn it into the ant hills. They get a thorough penetration and I am sure the plan is going to be much more effective than anything I have yet tried. Of course, this treatment calls for a lot of extension cord but I think we have something."—H. P. Hoser, Cortland, N. Y.