PUBLISHED FIVE TIMES YEARLY A ND DISTRIBUTED FREE TO LOVERS OF BEAUTIFUL TURF Vol. VI No. 4 SHEPHERD'S PURSE St. James' Other Names—Caseweed; Weed; Mother's Hearts. Annual and Winter Annual—Propa- gates by seeds. Seed Time—April Range—All cultivated to December. regions of the world. Habitat—Any soils and invades all crops. Anywhere out-of-doors one may expect to find Shepherd's Purse. It is at home in every country. Moreover, it plays no fa- vorites as to crops. It in- fests them all. At harvest time the seeds, which are about 1/24 of an inch long, are gathered along with many species. Lawn mixtures that are not composed of thoroughly cleaned grasses may con- tain an abundance of S h e p h e r d 's Purse because a single plant is ca- pable of producing 50,000 seeds. D E S C R I P T I O N. T h e re are few S H E P H E R D 'S Capsella Bursa- plants so variable in size and appearance as this weed called Shepherd's Purse. It may be bright green and nearly smooth, or gray from very short hairs. A plant August 1933 may be a dwarf, little more than an inch or two high, or a vigorous, branching plant, three feet high with many pods. There may be at the base a rosette of leaves or none at all. The leaves may be deeply cut or without any teeth or di- vision. The stem leaves are for the most part arrow-shaped, with two sharp, ear-like pro- jections, one on each side of the stem. The flowers are small and white. The only part of the plant which seems to be con- stant is the seed-pod, f l a t, heart- which is in shaped, triangular s h a p e, l o n g, wedge shaped at the base and notched at the top with the outer angles rounded. Each pod con- tains about twenty seeds. Seeds become sticky (mu- cilaginous) when wet. lA i n ch SEEDS L O NG L I V E D. The buried seeds of S h e p h e r d 's Purse, like other members of the mustard family re- main viable f or P U R S E, a number of years. •pastoris, L. When brought near the surface during cultivation they will germinate. An old lawn that is spaded up to be remade may develop plants of this weed in addition to having more in- troduced through the sowing of impure lawn seed. METHODS OF CONTROL. we can supply it at the same price as Turf Builder. A 10 lb. bag can be fur- nished for $1.15 postage paid. controlling It is obviously important to prevent seed production. Hand cutting or hoe- is a satisfactory ing below the crown method of small patches. Lawns that have been sprayed with Iron Sulfate for Dandelion control are rea- sonably sure to be safe from infestation by Shepherd's Purse as it succumbs to the same treatment. Copper Sulfate may also be used. Maturing plants of this weed may now be seen in many lawns. They should be removed before the big production of seeds is completed. How Orchard Grass is Eradicated from Lawns "You might be interested in knowing that I have been successfully eradicating Orchard Grass from lawns by applying Sulfate of Ammonia to the clumps in the spring and seeding spots immediately after the first hard rain. It kills better the latter part of the summer but does not show up as plainly in the lawn and more is missed. A handful applied dry to a good sized clump does the trick. Be sure to cover all the smaller outer crowns in the c l u m p . " —T HE GENEVA NURSER- IES, VIRGIL T. BOGUE, Geneva, O., March 18, 1933. Orchard Grass is all too common in lawns. It grows from a flat crown which for a mature plant may be four or five inches in diameter. From this crown the grass blades grow out rather horizontally so that many of them are missed by the mower. These blades are flat and rather coarse in addition to having a pale green color so they are conspicuous and un- sightly in a lawn. We are grateful to Mr. Bogue for sending in this sugges- tion for eliminating Orchard Grass from a lawn. You should be able to buy Sul- fate of Ammonia locally. If you cannot Covers Newly Seeded Areas With Burlap "I wish to give you some information on how to grow grass quickly, which if you do not already know, is very valua- ble on flat surfaces and especially on slopes. " My neighbor advised me to place bur- lap over the surface, pinning the same down at the corners with heavy wire after the soil had been prepared and the grass had been planted and to wet the burlap daily. In this way the sun strikes the burlap, heating the same and making the grass grow very rapidly. The burlap also prevents the birds from disturbing the seed and eating it. He told me that within two weeks after planting the seed I would have quite a heavy growth of grass, and to my surprise, this was true. I had tried for several years to grow grass in this particular location without success. "Perhaps the above information will be of some value to y o u . " —H. C. ZIM- MERMAN, General Motors Bldg. Corp., Detroit, Mich. Scott Lawns Win in Contest " We received a major prize in the Herald Tribune (Class A) Lawn Contest last fall. There are some beautiful lawns and gardens in Lynbrook but green lawns in August are rare unless you use Bent Grass."—MR. AND MRS. M. D. JESSUP, 30 Allen Street, Lynbrook, L. I., N. Y. "It will interest you to know that I was a winner in our locality in the New York Herald Tribune Yard and Garden Contest last fall. My hobby is lawns."— GUSTAV MARQUARDT, 173-23 114th Ave., St. Albans, L. I., N. Y. is the principal By Japanese Lawn Care Liked WE H A VE been in correspondence recently with Mr. K Ito of Tokio, Japan, a man who is greatly interested in home beautifying, an art which he reports to be of unusual interest in his country at the present time. While Zoy- sia Grass, a variety with which we have experimented during the past few seasons without success, lawn grass in Japan, Mr. Ito writes that Ken- tucky Blue Grass was solely relied upon to produce the lawn surrounding the Im- perial Palace in Tokio. Weeds, according to Mr. Ito, have never attracted much attention in Japan. There are plenty of them but they apparently have not been looked upon until now, as objectionable. There is a growing consciousness, says Mr. Ito, that weeds do not belong in the lawn. "LAWN CARE," he writes, "is be- coming so popular. Yesterday I went to Tokio to the Agricultural College and showed it. Many students admired it and asked me, ?How do you get it? How much cents? Only they would ask. But alas, they could not read it. In my next letter I want to tell you about Bent Grasses in Japan." fifty?' Dandelions Are in A M O ST Further Retreat interesting sequel to the gasoline syringe method of dande- lion destruction proposed by Colonel George A. Skinner of Omaha has been brought to light. The impression was given in BETTER H O M ES AND GARDENS and repeated in LAWN CARE that the idea was to inject the gasoline into the plant. "This," says Colonel Skinner in a letter to us, "is not the case. I put two or three drops of gasoline, without being particular whether it is more, on the cen- ter of the plant, usually covering the bud just as it emerges from the center. This destroys the plant completely. It turns black shortly and in a few days no trace of it is left. If there are flowers I also put a few drops on them as dandelions the are such persistent growers that flower will produce seeds before the plant dies. If one objects to stooping there are many gasoline applicators on the market but I prefer to stoop as I need the exercise." MUCH COMMENT AROUSED. We owe an apology to Colonel Skin- ner for causing him so much correspon- dence. He reports letters from dande- lion haters in Boston, Chicago, New York and the Southwest. The press in Des Moines carried his dandelion story and it also rated "Time" Magazine. Through the courtesy of the Colonel we have photographs of the syringe he used and the process of putting a per- fectly healthy plant out of commission. One hardly thought as he drove along the highways last spring that the dande- lion had lost any ground. But it is not because of any failure on the part of the public to become aroused. We nomi- nate Colonel Skinner for valiant service in the war against dandelions for the year 1933. ANOTHER STABBER DESCRIBED. The Army continues to regard the dandelion as its prey. We take pleasure in quoting another contribution to the discussion as follows: "I enjoyed reading in recent numbers of L A WN CARE the articles on ' T he D e- struction of Dandelions' submitted by Colonel George A. Skinner of Omaha and Major Robert L. Berry, Short Hills, N . J. "After going over Major Berry's csim- plified method' the outlay that he de- scribes (an assembly of galvanized iron pipes, caps, brass valves and stem pro- jectors) fairly well convinces me that he must be a member of the Engineering Corps. And in addition it may be rather embarrassing the druggist that the pint of carbolic acid (the amount specified by Major Berry) was to be em- ployed in the killing of dandelions. convincing "In contrast to the above processes I offer my so-called ^Simplex Method.' This procedure for dandelion annihila- absolutely without tion works . fail, includes no bending over, little labor, and practically no expense. SIMPLEX METHOD. "The materials necessary are as fol- lows: 1. A board 3 to 3% feet long by 1 inch wide. 2. A 'stabber' or spear made from a five foot piece of % inch wire. (concentrated). 3. An empty 1 ounce bottle or vial. 4. Sulphuric acid "Attach the empty bottle to one end of the stick by means of wire or tape, and then fill to one-half capacity with (It is important that the sulphuric acid. bottle should be only about half full since this will prevent dripping of acid on grass or clothing.) The 'stabber' is made by twisting the wrire two or three times around a ^wo-by-four', forming a fairly good handle, while the other end of the wire is filed to a sharp point. Dip the cstabber' into the sulphuric acid and push into the dandelion. Within a short time the dandelion will dry up and dis- appear leaving only a small brown spot which will also disappear in a short time. Sulphuric acid is very cheap and can be obtained at almost any drug store or garage (or from your automobile battery if necessary.) "I should like to suggest that the above two dandelion conquerors give my process a fair trial." F. K A M M, W Major Chemical Warfare Service, 6th Corps Area, 85th Division, Grosse Pointe, Mich. M Beheading Dandelions Is Advised "For the dandelion raisers among your readers it might be interesting that we fought a losing battle until we adopted the procedure of picking the blossoms as soon as they came out if we didn't have time to dig them. I do not believe more than a dozen have gone to seed in the last three years and dandelions are the least of our worries."—W. W. Fox, 579 Arbor Vitae Road, Winnetka, 111. Scott Publications Lawns, a small booklet of condensed facts about the making of a new lawn and the improvement of an old one. Bent Lawns, an illustrated booklet which tells how to make and maintain a Creeping Bent Lawn. Converting four methods of to Creeping Bent, folder explaining remaking and improving an old lawn by using Bent. Lawn Making and Maintenance. Sixty pages of specific information that will be especially helpful in the building or care of large lawn areas. The Putting Green. An illustrated book telling how to construct and main- tain grass greens. There have been twenty-four previous issues of Lawn Care and the following lawn pests have been discussed: Plantain, Crab Grass, Dandelions, Moss, Grubs and Beetles, Chickweed, Buckhorn, Ground Ivy, Yarrow, Earthworms, Heal- all, Ants, Speedwell, Creeping Butter- cup, Sod Web-Worms, Moles, Knot- Grass, Sorrel, Quack-Grass, Spotted Spurge, Yellow Trefoil, Goose Grass, Nimble Will and Knawel. The June- July issue explained how to grow grass on terraces. For the complete series please allow 10 cents to cover mailing costs.