P U B L I S H ED IN F E B R U A R Y, MARCH, APRIL, A U G U ST A ND SEPTEMBER BY O. M. SCOTT & SONS CO. MARYS VILLE, O H IO Sixteenth Year Number 73 KEEPING UP A LAWN IN THESE TIMES AN APPROPRIATE home slogan for 1943 would be: "A Good Lawn for Fun and a Victory Garden for Food." Keeping up the home front is a useful hobby which does not exhaust gasoline, rubber or other critical materials. It takes little time; it is inexpensive, yet a paying investment. The maintenance of lawns may fall into new hands this year but there will be ample incentive to carry on valiantly until those on furlough from the job come home. Feeding Put this down as a season when grass must get along on a highly restricted diet. Fertilizer materials are being conserved to help boost food production. Thus your Victory Garden may be utilizing the plant food intended for the lawn, so, as in the case of individuals, the lawn must tighten up its belt and become accustomed to simpler eating for the duration. Raking the Lawn The winter accumulation of leaves, twigs and other debris should be raked off as soon as the surface has thawed. Seeding ought not be done before this raking but feeding may come either before or after raking. If the season is well advanced and frost out of the ground, it is a good idea to make the raking rather severe to scratch the surface soil so as to provide a better bed for seeding. Seeding There is no reason for the least skimp- ing on seed. Mother Nature, ably assisted by our American farmers in the Corn Belt and on the Pacific Coast, provided a bumper crop last year. Our boats on the way home from taking supplies to the far Pacific have brought back from our Allied farmers in Australia and New Zealand ample seeds of those varieties not pro- duced in this country. It is safe to sow seed 'most any time in late winter, especially during that period when the ground is honeycombed, the result of alternate freezing and thawing. If there is a fair stand of grass on the lawn, the suggested seeding rate is 2 or 3 pounds to the 1,000 square feet (50 x 20 ft.). More or less may be used, according to the thickness of the existing grass. It is not advisable to use too much seed, as C O P Y R I G HT BY O. M. SCOTT 8c S O NS CO. mix my seed thoroughly, broadcast, then roll. This can be done in one or more batches as desired and I find I get an even distribution of seed, partly covered.— Mr. George A. Sylvester, Dunmore, Pa. Lawn Care reader Sylvester might also have added that he could mix Turf Builder with the soil and seed, thus performing feeding, seeding and topdressing in one operation. Sound Advice from Edgar Guest The dandelion is a weed That most profusely scatters seed. On every passing breeze that blows The little yellow fellow goes In millions to the lawns about By gardeners to be rooted out. But all in vain do men attack In rage and hate to drive it back. In vain, it seems, is fury's raid With knife and acid often made. Again and still again return More weeds for men to cut and burn. The way to win 'gainst such a mass Is give your heart unto the grass. The way to win 'gainst such a foe Is learn to get the grass to grow. Build up the lawn with food and seed Till there's no room for any weed. Who loves the grass may some day see His patch from dandelions free, But he who works alone in hate No lasting peace will celebrate. Hate merely multiplies its foes, To love sometimes the victory goes. —Printed by permission of Mr. Guest an overly thick stand of seedling grass may smother itself out. Keep your seed- ing hand close to the ground and walk with back to the wind. It is better to seed before rolling so that the roller will press the seed into the ground. Because of the necessity for plant food conservation, a little more frequent seeding may compen- sate for the letup in your usual fertilizing program. Rolling This is an important step but one that needs to be taken only once each spring. The purpose is not to flatten or eliminate high and low spots, but to press the plants that have been heaved by frost action back into the soil. It is therefore most effective after frost is out of the ground, but before it gets too dry. Heavy soils should not be rolled when they are extremely wet. (See L A WN CARE N O. 6 3 .) Mowing Check the mower to see that it is clean and well oiled. Have it sharpened and adjusted if necessary. If the mower has no adjustment for high cutting, see if it can be fixed as suggested in L A WN C A RE No. 54. Start mowing as soon as grass gets into active growth. Catch or rake up the clippings. To encourage the new grass it is a good idea to cut fairly short (1 to 1 y2 inches) in the early spring, while the weather is still cool and moist. Raise the height of cut as hot weather approaches. Watering This is one maintenance practice which can be curtailed, if necessary, for strong, properly fed grass can withstand severe drouth without injury. In most seasons, however, watering is needed to insure a vigorous green the summer months when a lawn is most enjoyed. If the lawn is to be kept green throughout the summer, start the watering program before there is severe drying out. Less total water will be needed, as explained in the full discussion on Watering contained in L A WN CARE N O. 6 0. lawn in SIRS: I sift through a fine screen a half bushel of good soil and with this Columnist Writes About Grass Many newspaper columnists discussed the grass problem last year. Dozens of articles from all sections of the country were sent in to us. We were most in- trigued by the following from the keen pen of well known William F. McDer- mott, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: and took "Until I moved from an apartment into a house, I never thought about grass as a problem. Grass was something green that you walked on in a park or admired It was a natural in a neighbor's yard. the air, which you phenomenon, enjoyed unconsciously for granted. If you just left nature alone the earth would be covered with grass and no trouble at all to anyone. That was an error I shared with higher authorities. One day when I was puzzled about the whimsi- cality of grass, I looked it up in the Ency- clopedia Britannica. The learned scholar therein quoted said something the effect that grass was the normal covering of the earth and if you did not do any- thing about it, grass would canopy the eager soil everywhere. like to "Theoretically that may be right, but it is misleading to anybody engaged in the practical business of trying to establish a few feet of sound lawn in the back yard. Nature Not So Generous "To begin with, you discover that grass is no free and careless gift of rapturous nature. It has to be seeded and reseeded, like wheat or orchids—not that I know anything about either. that, grass "Even after is not self- If it is really to amount to supporting. anything it must be fed, like a dog or a bird. The simile was ill chosen. Grass eats much more than a bird and, unlike a dog, it knows when it has had enough. I know not how many pounds of commercial fertilizer which the label said was carefully prepared to meet the special nutritional needs of grass. It was my idea to hand feed the grass with such care as its young and tender nature seemed to prescribe. "I bought But I was informed that was not the modern scientific way to do it. The new generation of grass was supposed to be fed by a machine which parceled out the nutriment evenly and kept worried young plants from stealing one another's supper." — © — Make War on Jap Beetles Advice to those who maintain turf in Jap Beetle districts is offered by Roland Schultheis, Superintendent of Flushing Cemetery, Long Island. We quote: "Plan your spring campaign now on Japanese Beetles while the forces of Nature are still immobilized by the cold weather. Enemy No. 1 is almost certain to be the Jap Beetle and all signs point to a big beetle year. Millions of dollars' worth of green stuff will be destroyed unless the beetle forces are dissipated. The beetles' front line is just below the frost line. Here legions of beetle grubs await warm weather to start for the surface. Poison applied now will be washed the ground by the spring rains and eliminate millions of grubs before they start to feed upon substances in the ground including grass roots." into For data on Grub Control readers are referred to Lawn Care No. 44. Application of 10 pounds of Lead Arsenate per 1,000 square feet of area is recommended. Smothering Crabgrass In L A WN CARE issues No. 70 and 71 sev- eral ways of combating Crabgrass were discussed. Since then the suggestion has been made that the key to another control method is the fact that Crabgrass requires abundance of sunlight if it is to survive. If black garden mulch paper or tar roof- ing paper may be used to shade infested patches of lawn the Crabgrass will suc- cumb. The good grasses will turn yellow but they quickly send up new green growth from their roots after the paper is removed provided there is no further complication such as an attack of beetle grubs. A convenient way to handle the paper is to tack it on light wooden frames of convenient size that can easily be moved about. The frames should be laid directly on the ground since it is advisable to shut out all light. The time required for Crab- grass kill will depend upon development of the plants. In the early stages, six or eight days may be enough, but if the plants have become tough and wiry as in late August, as long as two weeks may be needed. For the above suggestion we thank two eminent scientists of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Mr. L. W. Kephart of the Bureau of Plant Industry and Mr. Roland McKee of the Division of Forage Crops and Diseases. More A b o ut Spiking W. I. Endicott, eighty-one-year-old citi- zen of Chesterhill, Ohio, provided some interesting data on spiking lawns which appeared in No. 72 LAWN CARE. Next to Poison Ivy that item aroused keener inter- est than any other topic touched upon dur- ing the year 1942. All of which leads to the conclusion that a convenient usable spiking tool will be much in demand when metal again appears among the available items. Dozens of home made spikers were surely built as a result of the LAWN CARE article. Letters asking for further data poured in to us and Mr. Endi- cott, himself, must have gotten Chester- hill, Ohio, a first class post office single handed. To many persons in their eighty- first year, letter writing is a chore but not to Mr. Endicott. His advice on lawn spik- ing and the home basement manufactur- ing of the tool went out in a steady, easy- to-read handwriting to all who asked for his assistance. This estimable gentleman has been good enough to give LAWN CARE credit for his higher education on the subject of lawns. Where could one find a more pleasurable hobby? The Scott Publications Lawn Care—Subjects featured in pre- vious bulletins include: 1928 Plantain, Sodium Chlorate. 1929 Compost, Moss, Web Worms, phate, Buckhorn. Iron Sul- 1930 Ground Ivy, Yarrow, Earthworms, Heal- All, Ants. 1931 Speedwell, Creeping Kno tweed. Buttercup, Moles, 1932 Sheep Sorrel, Quackgrass, Spurge, Trefoil, Goosegrass. 1933 Nimble Will, Knawel, Terraces, Shepherd's Purse, Ground Covers. 1934 Sedge, Purslane, Spring Seeding, Dande- lions, Summer Feeding. 1935 Peppergrass, Shade, Summer Injury. 1936 Clover, Poa Annua, Henbit, Fall Seeding, Foxtail. 1937 Honeycombed Soil, Grubs, Orchard Grass, Soils, Turf Diseases. 1938 Liming, Dandelions, Chinch Bugs, Burlap Cover, Wild Garlic. 1939 Chickweed, Mowing, Dandelions, Fall Seed- ing, Poison Ivy. 1940 Spring Program, Organic Matter, Watering, Vitamins. 1941 Winter Affects Grass, Fertilizing, Money- wort, Mallow, Weed Control. 1942 Conservation of Lawn Tools, Tree Feeding, Crabgrass, Chemical Warfare on Crabgrass, Devil's Paint Brush. Paper Bound File—25c postage paid including all above bulletins. Loose Leaf Binder—$1.00 postage paid, all LAWN CARE issues to date and room for several years' future bulletins. Good Lawns—That amateur gardener's guide to better lawns. Contains a com- plete outline for building new lawns and improving old ones. Free. Bent Lawns—Illustrated new edition. Tells about the most beautiful of all lawn grasses—Scotts Creeping Bent. Care Of Bent Grass—Describing best maintenance practices Lawns developed from seed or stolons. the for Bent O. M. SCOTT & SONS CO. M A R Y S V I L LE • • O H IO EVERY PACKAGE OF SCOTTS LAWN SEED BEARS THIS TRADE-MARK AND IS SEALED FOR YOUR PROTECTION