Annual Conference
of the
MID-ATLANTIC ASSOCIATION
Of

GOLF COURSE SUPERINTENDENTS

Held at
THE LORD BALTIMORE HOTEL
Baltimore, Maryland
on
January 5 and 6ff 1960

Myron Mo Skolnick Reporting Company
208 Eo Lexington Street
Baltimore 2e Maryland

I N D E X
Membership Relations by Mr« Charles Smith
Golf Advancement by Mr. Herb Graffis

4
14

Soil Testing for Turfgrasses
by Dr. James R, Miller

31

The Turfgrass Plots at Rutgers
by Dr. Ralph Engel
Effect of Pre-emergence Chemicals on the
Germination and Growth of Turfgrasses
by Dr. Felix V* Juska
Crabgrass Control by Dr. Dayton Klingman
We Opened a New Golf Course
Moderator, Dr. Fred V. Grau
Panel, Mr. John Burt
Mr. George Co Gumm
Mr o Louis Lamp
Mro Fred Sappenfield
Mr o Bert Yingling

41

48
59

64
65
68
72
76
83

The Use of Pesticides for Gnat and
Mosquito Control on the Golf Course
Dr. George So Langford
Mro Lo R 0 Shields
Mr 0 George Co Gumm

86
102
107

Bermuda Grasses by Mr. E• Ray Jensin

109

The Introduction of Bermuda Grasses
in Existing Fairways
Moderator, Mr. James E» Thomas

112

2

Panel, Mr o
Mr.
Mr o
Mr o

Eberhardt Ro Steìniger
Lo Re Shields
Toro Doerer, JrQ
Frank Po Dunlap

114
116
120
121

Problems and Accomplishroents in 1959
on the Golf Course
by Mr o Charles Ko Hallowell

124

Wetting Agents
Mr o James Ao Reid
Mr o Robert Ao Moore
Air and Water Management for Better Turf
by Mr o Oc Jo Noer

132
136

Turfgrass Conference°s Contribution to
Golf Course Maintenance
by Mr o To To Taylor

t
3

141

156

MEMBERSHIP RELATIONS
MRo CHARLES SMITH, Chevy Chase Country
Club, Chevy Chase, Marylands
Good morning, gentlemen« When James Thomas
at first asked me to address this group this morning
I was a little pleased and perplexed at the same time
because - Why me? What do I have to say to bring to
the attention of golf course superintendents? They
are out of my field« Certainly I am not going to
undertake to teach you fellows the technical aspects
of your business and certainly I am not going to take
a scientific approach to some of your problems« We
are going to be here two days for an exchange of
operation«
I D d like to say something that Galileo
once said* "You can't teach a man anything; you can
only help him to find it within himself«08 On another
occasion he said, "Lend them a little faith until
they have time to accumulate some of their own«" That
phrase applies to me this morning«
Let me say, I come to teach, not to talk«
Lend me a little faith until I have time to accumulate
some faith in myself this morning for the task that
lies before me«
Making a speech, is pretty much like having
a baby, it is easy to conceive but hard to deliver«
Talks are pretty much like ladies0 clothing« There is
the hat talk« A man comes in and his talk is full and
flowery and touches on everything« There is the hoopskirt talk« It goes around and around and around and
seldom touches the talk« There is a brassiere talk«
This is dainty, brief, strong, and manages to cover the
main point very effectively« I'd like to stay with the
latter talk if I can«
4

Let°s see if we can get down to a little
businesso Business, as far as I am concerned, is
human business and, as a last resort, we are going
to accomplish our successes through other people
and therefore people become a prime interest to us«
Our viewpoint is most important before we start on
any task or assignment given to us«
One thing I°d like to make very clear?
to the man that hasn°t met you, you 0 re nobody « And
so the attitude that you take in that first contact
is going to set up a series of reactions with the
people that you are going to deal with « You can be
an entirely negative individual with the whole thing•
You know some of the people that are that way« Their
feeling is that everybody is out of step but me«
Then you have the positive approach« You
have heard some people say, 08Don°t worry about it?
you can°t get out of this world alive«" I will
propose a more positive approach to the matter than
that o
You have heard the cigarette ad, "A thinking
man°s filter"« There is a paraphrase to it, which
goes like this, "Think like a man of action and act
like a man of thought"« Or, to say it another way,
"To have that certain something, you must have something certain«"
And still another positive approach that
says it very well, "The shadow is always behind the
man who walks toward the light"« These are nothing
more than positive approaches to the job that we have
at hand«
So let°s be positive and be active« I
firmly believe there is no reason for you or I to
commit moral suicide because somebody else lacks
5

imagination and perspective.
We have a big job to doB
If we are going
to do it daily9 we are going to have to do it right,
if we are going to keep the job« It involves good
imagination from a lot of people from all walks of
life0 To do the big job we must first sell ourselves« You can't sell anything if you don°t know
the product you are selling0 This product is youG
For a moment, l°d like to suggest answers
to questions that I°d like to place before you« Are
you approachable? That is, can you be talked to?
Are you popular? You say, what makes a popular
person? From my observation of the popular person,
he is one who holds out a great promise and still
is capable of making come true the worthwhile
achievements from those people for whom he works0
Are your manners all they might be? Are you indifferent?
It could be that being indifferent makes us indefinite
tooo Are you inclined to take yourself too seriously?
Do you jump at conclusions before you learn the whole
story? Are you satisfied with your lot? Nothing
destroys like dissatisfaction0
Now if you are really convinced that you
like what you are doing, that you want to be a golf
course superintendent, and that you want to do that
job well, then you must accomplish your success
primarily through other people«
Let°s get down to business and start selling
you and your job« Now, to whom must you sell yourself?
Well, first to the club manager0 Why? Because he is
politically important to you« He is in on the know«
He has the most regular contact with the official club
family« He, or his office, maintains your records,
your company°s records and your pay roll records« You
can't avoid him so let0s win him over« That is a pretty
easy job«
6

The club manager, if he is doing a job
well, he is spending a lot of time . So much so
that his own personal life pretty well boosts
aside his club job, and his home becomes uppermost of importance0
With that type of reasoning, it makes
a very simple thing to approach him« You might
approach him from the basis of giving him a little
advice on his home lawn« You might offer him a
pruning shear or a special t o o L You can offer him
some help or you might suggest some if he comes by
and picks up the tools in his car« Stop in his
office and chat with him« Just say hello and what°s
cooking? You might offer your aid in special events
such as cutting down the Christmas tree« offer the
club member the trucke Rope off the area where the
fireworks are going to be held.
These are things that you are going to
have a Why not take the initiative? Think it over
and be gracious about the work that is going to be
done, but this is an approach that could be put into
effect with the club manager with whom you are working.
This isn°t a one-way street, not in any
sense of the word« The club manager is a very human
person« He is going to reciprocate with information
you°d like to have« Perhaps, information about the
committeemen that you are working with, the board
membersP to help on vacation schedules, perhaps some
additional school problems, particularly when you
want to ask for some more information«
The manager attends the board meetings,
he knows the temper of the board« He is in a
position to help promote superintendent plans, the
accounting costs, inventories« All of that information can be passed along« Also,, advance notice of
7

outdoor events, especially golf events because they
are going to start first in the committee and then
move on to the manager and the grounds superintendente This interchange between the superintendent
and manager will soon develop a whole series of
beneficial, mutually beneficial items0
For example, the superintendent sees
that the leaves are cleaned up and the parking area
is swept on the day of the board meeting0 The
manager°s office is going to be happy about it
because as managers we°d like to have the house in
tiptop shapec Also, the manager is going to see to
it that he doesn°t plan an egg hunt the day after the
superintendent has set out all the Easter flowers0
The superintendent, in turn, makes sure
that there is no grass seeding done on the day of
large lawn parties«, No matter how hard you try to
keep the swimming pool area neat and clean—unless
the superintendent is backing him up with some background information, it°s still not as nice as it
could be« No clearance should be done on the day of
the holiday parties <>
On the other hand, if information can be
passed along from the superintendent to the manager
on how the caddies are behaving while they are on
the course, it is a great help for the manager to
have the liaison with the caddy master, to help the
situations which are not right. The general landscaping that is done around the grounds is very
important to the manager«
We have a lot of visiting firemen, I mean,
visiting club managers, prospective members. When
we take them on the tour of the clubhouses and
grounds, it is very comforting to know that they are
in first-class conditiono These are things, again,

that are of mutual benefit to both the superintendent
and to the- manager.
Well, now that we have sweetened up the
manager a bit and we found out how they can have
beneficial information in work between the superin«
tendent and the manager0 Let°s work on the grounds,
and with the golf committee0
First, 1 suggest that you offer to attend
the committee meetings as a polite gesture when the
committee is first formed, but there is a very strong
second suggestion.
1°d suggest you get the idea across that
you°d like to have the information come from the
chairman and committee 0 Then I think you should
indicate as quickly as you can to the chairman and
to the committeemen individually, if necessary, these
things •.
I am thinking now about each year when we
get a new committee 0 You have a new committee . You
offer to attend the meetings« You hope the information will come directly from the chairmanp and you
want to let them know about your past performance«
Remember what I said when I first started,
"To the man that hasn°t met you, you are nobody."
Let°s meet him« Let him know what your past performance has been. Let him know what the status of your
staff has been, what your hopes and aspirations are
for the club and grounds, the limitations that are
imposed upon you by policy, perhaps what you can buy.
It has to become a committee matter. How many people
you are going to hire. How much you will be paying
before it becomes a committee matter. Certainly, not
the least of these things is the condition of your
equipment•
9

Then I would find out from the golf shop
if you don°t already know it, if your committeemen
play golf« And then I would plan to be around« I
would plan to be seen often, but for the most part,
just out of voice range«
Now, why do you see most committeemen?
Your work has a high degree of mystery and romance
in it« It amazes them« It is something they haven°t
done« It is something that they don°t quite understand, and so why spoil it? Let's keep the mystery
and romance in there0
Then, keep records, lots of records.
Committees love records« Keep all sorts of records,
whether you think they are important this particular
year or particular season or not« For example, how
much white sand went into the south trap? How much
it costs to put the single bridge in that goes across
No. 14? Things like that seem rather inconsequential
at the moment«
The committees love to develop facts and
figures, which makes this particular committee
accomplish a lot in the club organization« They
are going to come back to you for records« Let0 s
keep a lot of them on the lawn«
It is only common sense to plug the things
that are great« Fertilizers and chemicals are
important to an attractive lawn« Let's talk about
the tractor and the mower« That is good common sense«
Avoid misunderstanding if it is at all
possible. Avoid misunderstandings with the committee
that you are going to be working with« Misunderstandings create more work, more grief, more headaches«
As a matter of fact, let me tell you a little happening
I had this morning«
10

I stopped at a filling station, and a
rather agitated woman was there« She was asking
for everything« She wanted her antifreeze checked«
She wanted her tires checked« There was an aged
attendant doing the very best he could« He had
his head down under the dashboard cleaning up the
mess, and she was standing behind him and she said,
"Do you have a restroom?" The little fellow who
had his head down didn°t understand what she said«
He thought she said, "whiskbroom"« He said, "No,
I ain°t, but if you wait a minute, I will take
you over the air hose and we will blow it out«"
Let°s try to avoid misunderstandings«
Now, to membership relations« This is
a bit different« Membership relations, you are
talking about a group reaction« You are talking
about a very highly stylized self-satisfied group
of people who are flatteringly calling themselves
"golfers"«
1 realize that many dress as though they
were clowns in the circus and some behave even
worse« From the clubhouse view, many of them look
like animated ditch diggers« But, again, there are
a lot of them—bless their hearts—they are truly
jewels, be that as it may, they are your members
and my members« We have got to sell ourselves and
our job to them, but there are many times in handling
a group, the best "sell" is an indirect "sell"«
Let me draw an analogy, if I can go back
to my filling station episode for just a minute«
When you go to the station, is it just gas alone
that you expect? I think not? You expect the
attendant to check your battery and your antifreeze,
and do a multitude of little services« The members
expect the same thing of you at the golf course«

11

One of the best methods of selling you on
the job without having them demand it first—for
example, rain shelters, see that they are kept clean
at all times• Possibly, a rack for wet shoes, an
appropriate place—»the landscaping, the ladies0 room,
make sure that there are sturdy steps around inclines,
the trash recourse, water fountains, if it is there,
see that it really works, and ball cleaners that work
properly« But these are indirect services, these
are extras« These are things that members expect«
Many of them aren't going to say a word, a few of
them will accept them and let it go at that« All
of them will let you know that you are« All of them
will sell you even though your presence isn°t there.
Finally, I would like to say you must use
applied psychology« For example, if there is something bad to say, for instance, the course is closed—
no golf today« Post a sign« If there is something
nice to say, tell the person; it works« Smile and
possess a ready attitude of a positive approach to
your work. Be friendly.
As a matter of fact, I'd like to read a
very short verse. I think it says much to managers
and superintendents on this particular subject. Its
title is, "it Shows In Your Face"«
It shows in your face.
You don°t have to tell how much you live
each day.
You don°t have to say, do you work or play?
A tried and true barometer serves that free.
However you live you would show in your face.
The faults and the deceits will not stay
inside where it first got its start,
For sinew and blood are a thin veil of lace.
What you wear in your heart you wear on your
face.
12

If your life is unselfish, if for others
you live,
For it is not what you get but how much
you can give«
If you live close to God and his infinite
grace,
You donBt have to tell, it shows in your
face c
So let°s smile, let°s be happy, be positive
Be willing to smile and render a service«
So, gentlemen, this is one manager0s
opinion« Very specific human relationships are
very essential.
In closing, let me relate one last story
which I think sums up the plea that I make this
morning. The title is, "And Together They Might
Work"e
The story regards a fine old farm couple,
very capable fishing folks, but both of them a wee
bit stubborn« The old gentleman came in from the
field one day without a word to say. His wife
prepared dinner and they ate without a word to say.
They retired without a word to say.
The next morning he arose, had his breakfast and went to the field« Again, not a word passed
between them. A little later in the morning he came
in and changed his clothes, and he announced, MI°m
going to town." She said, "l°m going too." So they
hitched up the horses, climbed up on the wagon, and
started into town.
They sat there in silence. They watched
the smooth effortless effect of the rippling muscles
on the back of the horses. They went across the land
13

forged up and down the hills, and across the muddy
zones. Finally the old man was prone to say, "Why
can't we pull like those horses do? Why can't we
be a team?" The old lady thought for a moment,
and then she answered, "We could if there was but
one tongue between us« "
Gentlemen, that is my appeal, one tongue,
unity, mutual understanding-—you name it—but that
thing which causes superintendents and managers to
act together, to serve better their members and
their courses«
Thank you.

It has been a privilege to

be here„

GOLF ADVANCEMENT
MR« HERB GRAFFIS, Editor, Golfdom Magazine:
Gentlemen, we have just heard some
history« Charlie, every fellow in this room has
heard a lot of talks about the manager and the
superintendent. That they should be playmates and
teammates, but yours is the only one that I have
heard in 209 years of listening to them that has
kept me awake, and it has been very specific and it
shows an acute realization of the realities—the
minute you remind the boys that the records are
kept in the clubhouse—so let's be pals«
You reminded them that the records are
kept in the clubhouse, which accounts for a lot of
the curious records on golf course maintenance, and
when they have looked at the costs and found the
swimming pool, bath towels and everything else in
the cost of golf course maintenance, they are going
to have your remarks to confirm it the real hard way«
14

At least, as a reporter that has heard
a lot of managers speak on the subject, you have
finally made the talk that gets right down to what
makes sense, and that is more money.
Now, we have heard Mr. Smith talk about
the relationship with the men. I will go into the
market end of it because we are all in a marketing
business. In doing it, I would say, to look at the
superintendents0 achievements, you are doing a
marketing job in a very successful way because the
growth of golf has been more substantial than that
of any other sport comparatively, although boating,
of course, is still the big growing sport.
This Spring will see more than 6,000 golf
courses in the United States being played by more
than four and a half million golfers. Now, we
consider a golfer as somebody who plays ten or more
times a year« That is a given figure that we more
or less arbitrarily decided on as indicated by
somebody who means something to the market.
These golfers will spend considerably
over a half billion dollars—probably about threequarters of a billion dollars—in pursuit of
happiness at golf courses.
The strictly golf percentage of this
spending—the spending for course maintenance,
playing equipment and caddie fees—will be much less
than half the cost of playing golf.
Obviously our game of golf is a big
business. Its growth, its present situation, its
trend and future are matters that control our
individual plans but it is difficult for any of us
to get an accurate picture of our business for the
reason that the figures about the golf business are
15

so frequently inaccurate.
I have heard, as you have heard, that
there are 10,000,000 golfers and, of course, that
is not so; there is not nearly that many, except
about 9,000,000 of them that show up on the day
that you don't expect them.
Few of us ever really know what the
score is in golf as a business. And strange to
say, conspicuous among those who know the least
about what the score really is in golf as a
business, are highly successful businessmen who
are officers of golf clubs.
The private golf club is a durable
institution to be able to survive the errors of
policy and operation that would soon wreck a
substantial private business.
Every superintendent, every manager, and
every professional has received orders from Ohio
after committee meetings that he knows are going
to be very expensive and contrary to his own
experience and judgment, but they come from these
successful businessmen, and he has to carry them
out, and that frequently accounts for the extravagancies in running golf courses.
All of you fellows are acquainted with
the costs of making revisions on the course because
some chairman or some committeeman insisted on them
being made. In a few years later somebody else
makes the same sort of a costly revision. They
wouldn't do that in a private operation, but they
will invariably do it on golf courses. Invariably,
you get some place like Pine Valley where they let
it stay pretty well, and don't keep fooling around
with it o
16

In the past 12 years there has been a
24 percent increase in the number of public and
semipublic golf courses, but the private courses
have just about held their own, nothwithstanding
the fact that between 10 and 20 percent of the
courses built each year of the past five have been
private clubs that are elements of real estate
developments bordering the courses« That is the
big thing now and it is not particularly new because
of the great golf courses, some of them were part of
a real estate development. One I can recall is the
Garden City Golf Course, which was back in the
nineties« There are a great number of them that
have been in the association of golf real estate
operations«
Taxation and irresistibly high offers
for older private club property to be converted
into residential and commercial areas has accounted
for the loss of a number of courses«
Highway building also has been a factor
in the destruction of golf courses, other: recreation areas and attractive suburban'sites« The
highways figuring in this destruction will be outof-date in ten years but the damage will be permanent O
With a strong and opulent lobby and
powerful political connections, the highway operations,
instead of making courses more convenient are cutting
up the courses, and it does not seem that the recreation and esthetic values and potentialities of the
countryside can be protected from this ruthless,
mercenary attack«
The private club situation shows points
that need study and corrective action« In fact,
they are overdue for attention. The cost of private
17

club membership is dangerously high considering
the tax picture, and the average age of members«
This Spring the private clubs will be
fewer than 3,100 of the total of about 6,050
courses of all classes« Of these private clubs
more than half are nine hole golf courses«
That leaves a few over 1,500 private
eighteen hole or larger clubs of the character
that might be expected to provide a golf course
superintendent with the sort of a job that a
first-class experienced man must have to keep him
in the business of golf course management, or hold
forth promise of earnings that would attract
desirable young men to this business«
In the past 12 years while the
population of the United States has been increasing
about 20 percent, the number of municipal courses
has increased a little bit less—about 18 percent«
The big increase—from 1,076 to 2,047—•
almost double—in the past 12 years has been in
the privately owned daily fee courses where
businessmen are getting into it, and they are
making money out of it« Some of these are tied
in with real estate operations involving the sale
of bordering homesites on the basis of their
location with a golf course as the front yard«
Incidentally, that development, I have
seen in some cases as having a favorably influence
on the earning capacity of superintendents, and it's
giving more trouble too, because some of these more
advanced deals are having lawn construction and
maintenance and particularly the estate deals as a
part of the purchase of property«

18

What the increasing number of public
golf courses will mean to superintendents0 earnings is anybody°s guess right now« As a general
thing, municipalities, park systems and other
public authorities are not notoriously for overburdening their workers with money0
However, I have noticed in the past
several years a definite trend to raise the
salaries of public course superintendents in
recognition of work very ably done in maintaining
courses under the severe handicap of the heavy wear
that public courses get« The exhibition of good,
efficient work In public service that municipal
course maintenance often presents is excellent
advertising for a political administration and as
such, also deserves a reward0
The man in charge of golf course
maintenance has developed through several stages.
The greenkeeper pro stage, where he had to do
almost everything—design and build the course,
grow turf on it, maintain the course, make clubs,
teach, and sell the equipment0 Then there was the
foreman stage where a man came up and took over a
maintenance job that had become too much to handle
correctly, along with pro duties0 After that came
the greenkeeper and the birth of a specialized,
highly technical department of golf business, and
now the superintendent who has to be a sound
combination of executive and operating man«
A great many people in many businesses,
including golf, are taking bows for market development that is primarily due to population increase0
G o l f s decided growth during the past
decade has been due to availability of more courses,
to take care of the increase in the 'population or the
19

shift in population. In the South, as we all know,
there has been quite a few pretty good courses put
in the neighborhood of smaller towns as an attraction for industry.
There is a saying that to me is quite
interesting. "Every year you always read something about the Government being fussier about
expense accounts. In looking into city and
suburban golf club memberships, well, one of the
fringe benefits that is being offered to a lot of
employees to get them into new areas is golf club
memberships." And so, on one side there is a
jaundice look being taken at golf club memberships.
On the other side, you find it very definitely an
attraction for business.
The National Golf Foundation—and
Harry S. Eckoff knows of this. He is in charge of
this territory—and most of you know that he is
doing a marvelous job in helping people transform
a wish for a new golf course into a reality.
The National Golf Foundation, the game's
promotion bureau, financed mainly by makers of
playing equipment, has worked wisely, vigorously
and effectively in helping people transform their
wish for a new golf course into a reality. This
has meant a tremendous increase in the market for
clubs, balls, bags, course maintenance equipment
and supplies—and new jobs for superintendents,
professionals and managers.
Incidentally, this furnishes competition
for the best available personnel. I know of a
number of cases, and you fellows know of more, where
some new good layout, wanting to get a superintendent,
has made offers for a man at present in a pretty fair
job, and he's had his salary increased to keep him
20

there. That is the surest way of a superintendent
getting the money that is really due him for his
responsibilities and performances.
The Foundation's organization and
stimulation of junior golf in collaboration with
the PGA has introduced more than a million acolytes
who have stayed playing golf. Possibly an equal
number of juniors who promised to be active golfers
haven't continued in the game because of the
inconvenience of playing facilities, the unduly
long time it takes to play and unnecessarily high
costs o
Strange thing about that is that the
family as It g^tB larger now, it is a tougher deal
for a golfer, of course. The average man and his
wife have three children. When they go out to play
golf, It takes the whole day.
Furthermore, it takes really too much
money at a private golf course to be the soundest
sort of a deal. Unless the young man happens to
be on an expense account—you know from your own
experience, when you are away from a young family
Saturday or Sunday there is going to be a "storm"
at home. Now, that's a situation that has to be
corrected in some way.
The one factor in it? 1 have referred to
it, and that is the increasing age of the private
club membership. The private club picture isn't
as healthy as it should be because mainly the
older, wealthier businessmen can afford private
club memberships and they condone, if not encourage,
wasteful operations and assessments that socially
desirable younger people cannot afford. However,
the profits of the golf courses are almost doomy,
if you look at that situation in that light. And
21

then if you look with a happier eye at the list—
at the waiting list of golf courses—and never
in the some years—never in the so many years
that I have been in the golf course business—have
golf clubs had the long waiting list that they now
have o
Senior golf is having a tremendous boom.
The seniors have money and time and spend both for
golf. They are spending at their tournaments,
according to an informed estimate, twice as much
as the total of prize money on the pro tournament
circuit«
>
The seniors, many men golfers of 50 years
and older, will account for the higher percentage
of new top quality golf club purchases than the
proportion of their group to the total of golfers.
The seniors mainly are accountable for
a new development in golf operations; the golf car.
The richer the golf club or the more expensive the
resort, the more golf cars there will be if topography of the course permits« There is no need to
fight him any more. Theisuperintehdente^iightvvailwell
£§la?ko bdftifeoishinevitable, it will do the best for him«
Car operation means more problems in
course maintenance and the superintendent might as
well get reconciled to that. There are numerous
indications that the golf car problems would have
been minimized if the superintendent had been
brought into the picture quicker as a practical
consultant•
Now, everybody in the golf car business
and the club officials have taken a look at it by
getting the newspapers to find out how to take
care of this problem, what regulation changes or
22

what design changes may be needed to make car
operations more satisfactory.
There still is the debate about having
black-topped or other paths at the sides of fairways for golf cars. I have heard superintendents
say these paths don°t interfere with golf play and
within a few minutes have seen shots bounce on the
paths and go 50 yards out of line.
Golfers are more important than grass—
even to golf course superintendents—so the
superintendents will find the answers to the car
traffic problems; all except the answer to the
problem of the half-witted, selfish driver who is
careless on golf courses just as he is on highways.
I suspect that the golf car eventually
may be designed to answer its own problem« It may
have spiking or aerifying devices on some wheels
and still be able to carry the load of players and
clubs. Maybe the car manufacturer will go into the
golf car business«
I am sure that there will be, before many
years, a gas operated golf car that can be folded
into the luggage compartment of a player0s automobile,
which can be setup to provide transportation on the
course for a player and his clubs« This seems
ridiculous« I have seen inventors0 sketches and
models of such devices, and they didn°t look any more
grotesque than the first golf car I ever saw«
Another phase of g o l f s advance that is
meaning new problems and increased importance for the
superintendent is the growth of women 0 s golf« This
year women probably will account for somewhere between
25 percent and 30 percent of the almost 90,000,000
rounds of golf that will be played in the United States.
23

The increase of women's golf has meant a
rearrangement of schedules for course maintenance
and an increase in costs« But thusfar, the women
have meant proportionately fewer troubles for the
superintendent than men have« That is, in most
cases« Of course, in a few cases I have heard
superintendents who have taken to drugs or drink
to get away from some gassy old broad that has got
some complaint« Women, generally, are not the
crybabies about rough and a temporarily bad green
that men are« Incidentally, the worst crybabies
about rough and greens are tournament professionals
who don't pay one cent in dues to support the
course they complain about«
In one of the early golf directories,
published in the first decade of this century when
there were about 1,000 golf clubs in the United States,
I think that was about 1927, I noticed a number of
clubs had women officers« That situation may return
and I am not particularly alarmed about the prospect«
Golf business could stand an improvement in its
household management« Women have more time than men
to give to club business« Certainly some of them
might be nuisances, but aren't a number of men
officials?
Incidentally, when Charlie was talking
about the clubhouse grounds, I have noticed one little
thing, that maybe it is significant—it is possible
it isn't true—but the places that have the best
maintained golf courses is where the superintendents
get the most salaries? those are the places that are
the neatest« You can go into the place and the
housekeeping is marvelous, the minute you turn off the
road« There is the kind of a guy that must drive
superintendents nutty because a lot of golfers are
slobs« It is the barometer of course ratings«
24

One advance in golf that I thought I
would be seeing right about now hasn°t materialized as much as I hoped it would. With all
the new construction of courses—311 regulation
new courses and enlargements from nine to
eighteen holes in 1959—I thought the standard
of construction would be higher. Everybody in
the business has learned that a good part of the
mystery is the result of bad construction in the
old days.
And the weather—with good construction
you can offset a good part of the weather.
Some guy goes out to build a golf course
now. He has to work with an economical price.
They have done that since golf started in this
country. If the price is so low that the guy has
to take a cut, the green construction, then he is
sure laying up a headache for some guy in 20 to 25
years for now we see that the original bad construction has to be done over, and a lot of it was just
somebody°s good idea of something that didn°t turn
out to be sound.
We all know that false economies to
produce the winning low bid figured in a lot of
golf course construction 25 to 35 years ago. That
bad construction and the immense increase in traffic
with resulting compaction and wear are a combination
that has raised hell for superintendents in the past
few years.
It used to be that the golf courses were
just like churches. They get big business over the
week end, maybe one prayer meeting a day, but now even
on Monday there is pretty fair play on private clubs.
Tuesday, Women 5 s Day; Wednesday, the doctors are out;
Thursday, there is usually some groups out; Friday,
25

the women get back again; in fact, the women
are on the courses all of the time; every time
they can get there. Saturday and Sunday, you get
headaches. So you are running practically an
airport traffic. You are still, however, having
the problem of the aftermath of mistakes in
construction. I don°t see that too many of them
are being avoided in the construction that is now
going on.
I have talked to architects and builders
and they said that $25,000.00 would give them a
chance to do so much more on the whole course, but
they just can't get it. A lot of these golf courses
are going in where the fellows are trying to use
something instead of money.
So with this object lesson abounding in
golf I thought there would be stronger insistence
on higher standards of construction than I have seen
in evidence at a number of places. In some of the
jobs $5,000.00 would be the difference between eighteen
greens that would be first-class and eighteen greens
that are going to be expensive to maintain and never
will be consistently good.
The greatest advance in golf has been the
extension of practical science. Between the research
fellows and the progressive, scholarly superintendents
the standard of course maintenance has been raised so
high that it keeps the superintendent constantly in
peril. You are never going to like that because the
better you make your course, the more they are going
to expect.
Some players I have seen—I guess they were
going around in 100 par—and they would scream about
two lousy greens where they missed desired six foot
putts that might have got them 300 par. That is what
26

you are up against in your business.
simply can't win a lot of times«

So, you just

The value of this collaboration of the
superintendents, the field and laboratory research
men and the manufacturers 6 experts has been of
infinite value to golfers and club officials? very
few of whom have the slightest idea of what is being
done for them by the authorities in golf turf development and maintenance« Charlie brought that one out,
that the guy that doesn°t know you, you are really an
unknown0
And the next advance and one that is already
started is the job of making the superintendent0s
achievements better known to the players. They just
go out and take the courses as a mere matter of course.
I think in the Mid-Atlantic I have seen the greatest
thing that has happened in the application of this
service.
I don°t know whether you are continuing those
visits to clubs and reporting on them as you have done
in previous years. I used to get those over every
month, and they would take them around, when talking
to club officials, and say, "Well, here is what happened
in one section." And these men, a lot of the fellows
that have big plans said, "They wished to God they
could get something like that going in their own
business where they could get other plan superintendents
to come around and look over their place and make
suggestions.M
And one great thing about that Mid-Atlantic
operation was the attitude that the other fellows had.
I think the older fellows in this business can recall
very clearly the day when the superintendent didn't
want anybody else coming on his course and telling him
what might be wrong because the guy thought most of the
27

time that the visitor was looking for his job, for
he would say, "Why doesn°t he stay home and take
care of his own damn job?" You know that type of
attitude. Some fellows have a really sound,
helpful, scientific attitude.
Scott Valentine and all the older guys
remember when if you saw another superintendent
on the course, he was over to borrow some equipment
or he was up to no good. Now that has changed
considerably. This factor between the University
of Maryland Fellows, the green section, the
manufacturers0 men and the superintendent has been
a unique thing in golf.
There is no way of definitely comparing
the standards of golf courses today with those of
25 years ago. But, offhand, gentlemen, from my
observation, I would suggest that the standards of
golf courses has improved a whole lot more than the
standards of play, which is an indication of the
success of superintendents8 work.
Now, you have advanced to this point
and just, I think, generally, touched on it, and
Charlie touched on it here, that the superintendent
now is being recognized as a fellow who is a human
being, and whose work determines the success and the
profit of the operations in every other department
of the club.
If the course is in good shape you get a
lot of bar business and a lot of restaurant business.
Incidentally, there is a lot more meals sold and a
whole lot more rounds of drinks at the bar than
there are rounds of golf at the golf course. But
if the golf course is in good shape, you get a lot
of house business. The pro shop gets a lot of good
business.
28

If by the act of God or man is what
puts the golf course in a lousy shape, there are
not going to be the good bunch of spending drunks
standing at the bar« Namely, there will not be
any Charlie Smiths to spend their money there,
and there would not be any money to enable the
pro to pay his bills and get himself another
Cadillac« So you are the basic guys« But,
substantially, as that advance has been made,
there has been a little reminder«
Last year I noticed in talking with a
lot of fellows, the young, old, and medium smart
guys, that they cannot escape the simplest things
in this search to get some scientific thing that
will be a great answer«
Even the little things—a guy was talking
to me, he said that he was having trouble with a
green and thought it might be air circulation« He
just happened to think as to how long it had been
since he cut down some trees and some shrubbery.
He said that he just happened to have some records,
and he went back and found it had been 11 years.
He said, "No wonder the same trouble we had before
was coming back«" Eleven years passes like a
couple of days when a fellow is busy on the golf
course«
Another thing that I have seen this year
or heard rather, from a lot of very successful and
lucky g u y s — I admit they are lucky in this business,
superintendent business—and one that is the simplest
thing in the world, and that is accurate measurements
and one you are talking about—how committees like
records«
The measurements of the areas of greens,
tests, traps, fairways—in golf courses accurate
29

measurements just don't exist in a lot of places
because, in the first place, the superintendent
seldom has time to have them made. Now, I think
there has been a great improvement in that because
of the more extensive use of chemical treatments.
A guy can't guess too much any more.
But here is another thing that popped
up this year that all of you fellows know better
than I do, and that is about the directions on the
label. Some fellows have told me that in so many
cases where they have good luck in avoiding misery,
that preventive treatment was applied heavier than
the directions recommended. There was apparently
in the manufacturers' recommendations and in the
users' practices, generally, overemphasis on
economy. That overemphasis was disregarded by the
men who spent a little more but were lucky enough
and got what their members wanted, of course, on
this, not being a technical man, I mention this
with fear.
I want to repeat that I am not qualified,
and certainly don't want to urge anyone to make a
practice of exceeding manufacturers' recommendations.
I am passing along this information from
those older fellows that have experimented quickly
or have taken a chance successfully. Excessive
preventive works successfully in offsetting unusual
adverse conditions.
It takes a man who can defeat disaster
under adverse conditions to hold a superintendent's
job. Any bum can run a golf course if God is with
him all of the time and nature smiles on him. When
things are tough, it takes a real superintendent to
run it. It always has and it always will be that
way, regardless of any glorious degree of advance
30

that the business may make«
Thank you, gentlemen«

SOIL TESTING FOR TORFGRASSEE
BR« JAMES Ro MILLER, University of
Maryland g
Let us discuss the essential elements
required by plants« Nitrogen, phosphate and
potash are referred to as the major plant food
elements« You buy them as commercial fertilizers
every year. A Bluegrass turf will take up during
the growing season about 39 pounds of nitrogen,
15 pounds of phosphate and 45 pounds of potash«
Secondary elements are calcium,
magnesium and sulfur« Calcium and magnesium may
be supplied through limestone. Also, there is a
certain amount of calcium in the;- fertilizer as an
impurity. For example, phosphate is supplied
through your calcium phosphate. So, you will get
a certain amount of calcium in the fertilizer as
such. Sulfur also comes as an impurity, so to
speak, in the fertilizer, ©f course, it is
essential to plant growth. For example, superphosphate contains about 11 percent sulfur. So,
when you combine all of your analysis of fertilizers,
you get these materials in them.
To get back to Bluegrass turf, remember
it contains 14 pounds of calcium, 5 pounds of
magnesium and 4 pounds of sulfur. This is a
calcium, magnesium oxide removal. The amount
removed is not as large, and often these materials
are not as much of a problem becoming deficient, but
occasionally they do show up.
31

The last group here are referred to as
trace or minor elements. The reason they are
referred to as "trace11 elements is for the reason
that it doesnBt take much to grow a plant. In
Bluegrass turf, zinc only removed .06 elements of
a pound, copper .02 and manganese .23.
So we have in the trace or minor,0 iron,
zinc, copper, boron, manganese and molybdenum.
I think this is important to you men
that are using fertilizers to know a little bit
as to what happens to them when they are applied
on a soil. We have this real fancy term we use,
"Exchange Capacity", that the soil chemists like
to use. This means nothing more than the building
of the soil to hold clay content. To break it down
a little further, we mean, to hold plant food. Some
soils will hold more plant food than others.
What is the material in the soil that
is responsible for holding .the plant food and the
lime? It is clay content and the organic matter.
These are the two materials that hold the plant
food that is added to the soil. And, of course,
the more clay you have in the material, the more
organic matter, the more fertilizer it can hold.
Yet, too much of these materials, too high clay
content can cause a poor condition of the soil, and
you cannot expect this poor soil content to hold the
plant nutrient.
Letfls take one of these clay particles.
They are in various shapes, such as the thick and
triangle shapes that we have here. Let us visualize
one clay particle. This clay is charged with the
negative charge here; in other words, on the surface.
Now, what happens when we add fertilizer to this
material? Well, for example, let us start out with
32

potassium,, or let us call it potash, which is K2O0
This has a plus charge 0 When you add potash to the
soil it can be heldo
Another element is calciumo
It, too, has
a plus chargeo
It can hook onto the soil and holdo

chargeo

Magnesium is another one having a plus
These two, of course, are added in the limeQ

Then we have hydrogen 0 Of course, this is
nothing more than the material that causes the acid
in the soilo Most of our soils have some acid in them Q
These materials are all charged so they
will all hold the clayo What happened about the
phosphate? Well, phosphate is held differentlyo
It
is held as what we call a precipitation«
It is held
as iron and aluminum phosphate, and it is held tightly
in the soilo
It is a matter of a chemical precipitation in the soilo The more acid in the soil, the
more iron0
The ability of soil to hold nitrogen
depends upon the form of nitrogen 0 Ammonium nitrogen
has a plus charge and is held by soilo When soils
are warm and moist, soil bacteria act on forms of
nitrogen such as ammonium and organic matter, changing
them to nitrates, these nitrates having a negative
charge do not combine with soil which also has a
negative charge0
The plant uses nitrates but often not fast
enough and as additional water moves in and through
the soil, it takes the unattached nitrates down and
away from the roots of the plant * This is known as
leachingo Therefore, any nitrate form of fertilizer
remains in the soil a comparatively short time if
soils temperature is 80 degrees or higher0

Selecting Samples
With a new soil uncovered, get sample
from top six incheso For a soil covered with
turfgrasses, the top three inches may be used
for samplingo Past treatment and color of the
soil enter into sampling soilso Be sure the
sample is a representative of each area to be
testedo
Slides illustrated how tests for
acidity, phosphorous, potash and soluble salts
are made in the laboratory 0
Lime supplies calcium or calcium and
magnesium, depending upon the form of lime that
you usedo As I mentioned, some of our soils are
low in magnesium and a high magnesium lime is
necessaryo
In addition to supplying calcium and
magnesium, lime also increases the availability
of the plant food in the soil, especially phosphorus 0
This is very important«
It also increases the
availability of nitrogen in some of your other
elements«
Another importance of lime is the fact
that it is necessary for the breakdown of the
organic matter, so that the elements become available again to the plant that you are growing 0
Mow, there are various forms of lime that
can be usedo There is burnt lime, hydrated lime
and ground limestoneo Now, the burnt and hydrated
lime will react somewhat faster in the soil« However, on top pressing treatment on a turf that has
been established, burnt lime and hydrated lime can
occasionally cause burningo
In other words, they
are more soluble 0
It can cause burning 0
Ground
limestone, in most cases, will react fast enough

without raising the soil's acidity to give the
result you want. However, when buying limestone,
you want to make sure that you get lime of the
proper fineness. In other words, if it is a
coarse material, it is not going to react when
it is applied to the soil. So, we feel that
when purchasing limestone, you should get a
material that 100 percent will pass a 20 inch
mesh and about 50 percent to 100 inch mesh.
The next slide will show the importance
of bringing the feedings of the soil up. I realize
that there are a lot of curves here. Let us look
at the soil PH. This is the soil PH on this axis
and this is the number of wheats after applying
the lime. Now, the original PH was at 5. You will
note with the 20 mesh material that after six weeks
the PH is hardly brought up any at all, about 5.4«
You see, with 20 mesh material it does not react
too fast.
However, with 100 mesh material you can
see that the reaction of the ground to the limestone
is almost immediate. So to get reaction of the lime
with the soil, to neutralize acidity, you have to
have the proper fineness.
Now, we were discussing the availability
of the nutrients. You will note the change in PH
going from PH-4 up to 8. Now, the width that is
noted here indicates the amount of availability.
In other words, at the narrow end here the material
is not nearly as available as it is up in this right.
Let us take a look at nitrogen. You will
note in this change, 6 to 7, that the nitrogen is
quite available. Potassium, the same is true.
Magnesium, calcium, phosphorus; note here at PH-5
how the availability of phosphorus drops. The
35

availability increases with PH. This is the
reason why there can be a problem with trace
elements at times. In other words, you can get
into the range of seven and a half, and you can
get into a deficiency? poor iron and manganese
and some of the other elements. Too much lime
can do as much harm as not enough. So, it is
very important to get your PH up to the range
of six to six and a half. The optimum range is
six to six and a half. It is true that some of
your grass will grow lower. The total earth's
acid is PH-5. As a matter of fact, the turf
produced is not too great.
Next. I realize that you wouldn't
grow orchard areas in a turf mixture, but this
points out very readily what you will get with
lime. The same will hold true with Bluegrass.
For example, this is no lime matter. This is
with a PH of 5.3o This is with a PH of six,
and with a PH of six to seven. This work was
conducted at Pennsylvania and it shows the amount
of growth that you get with different PH levels.
Now, here are some samples that were
sent to us last year to the soil testing laboratory.
These samples were from one Montgomery County, which
is near us at the University there, and it is the
summary of the PH readings for soils from lawns to
be planted, and established lawns.
In other words, these were both started
out with a lawn from scratch. These were from lawns
that were already established. Now, in this case,
this represents an average of 50 lawns, and this
represents an average of some 308.
In other words, we can get a pretty good
picture in this one county alone for the trend for
36

lime. Let us note, on the lawns to be established
we had 11 percent in the range of three and a half
to five. From 5.1 to 6 we had 57 percent. Just
note here ? we had some total of 68 percent of the
samples sent to us that needed lime. In the range
of 6.1 to 6.5 where we feel that we want to get the
PH up to this level, we had 25 percent.
Now, once the lawns were standard, the
situation was not quite as bad but there was still
a need for lime—some 58 percent of the soils,
although the PH was low, a PH of six. This
represents quite a number of lawns, over 300. It
is that much in Maryland. We do have a few that
are above 6.8.
Next slide. Now, what are the PH readings
for fairways, greens and tees in the test samples
that are sent to us? This is the summary for last
year's results. This represented, I believe, about
140 and this one was in the range of 40 samples.
It does give us a trend. Now, in the low PH-6 we
had 55 percent; 55 percent of the samples sent to
us were below this range. Greens, 23 percent and
tees, 33 percent. In other words, lime appears to
still be an even rate manganese on your turf areas.
We are just not using enough.
Next slide. Now, what are the amounts
of lime recommended to bring this PH up to 6.5?
That is what we feel is the optimum of PH. Well,
as I mentioned earlier, this will depend upon the
texture of the soil and from what area that is
obtained in our State.
The loamy sands or sandy loams, of course,
become a smaller amount of organic matter, a smaller
amount of clay, and for this reason require less lime
to bring the soil to PH-6.5 than the heavier soil.
37

Let us note, for example, if you sent
a sample to us with PH-5.5, the amount of lime
to bring it up to 70 percent will be five pounds.
This amount is for the top six inches of soil.
If it were for an established area we would
recommend one-half of the amount. Actually, the
amount does not move readily in the soil. You
will only affect the top three inches.
Let us look at the heaviest soils.
Here the amount recommended is 100 pounds. With
a soil of a PH-5 and with a soil from the Piedmont
and mountain area, about 200 pounds.
Now, a little bit about how we would
apply this lime. If you were starting with a new
area, it would be important that the lime be mixed
with the entire top six to seven inches of soil,
because lime does not move as readily as it does
in the sandy loam soils. I will illustrate it in
the next slide.
Here is some work that was conducted in
Beltsville on a sandy loam soil. It shows with
40 inches of bleaching, which is a normal rainfall—
in Maryland we normally get around 40 to 50 inches.
When limestone was applied in the treated area,
after bleaching with 40 inches of water, we still
had 77 percent of the limestone in the treated
layer. Twenty-three percent had moved down to
one inch below the treated area. Below this there
was no lime.
This points out that within a year
the conditions in Maryland, you are going to
lime to move about one inch to an inch and a
This is why it is so important to fix the PH
the entire topsoil when you are starting out
a new lawn or new golf greens.
38

under
get the
half.
up into
with

Now, in the cases where we cannot*—>in
other words, the area has been established—we
did not take care of the PH. The best we can
hope for is through top dressing in the application. You will get this movement of about one
inch per year. With hydrated lime the movement
is still a little greater but still not significantly greater over the limestone. It is
essentially the same thing.
Next one. Now, this is a summary of
the phosphate and potash soil test results for
lawns to be planted and established lawns. Now,
let us study the results for the phosphate.
This is the percent of samples tested; low, medium
high and very high. In the new lawns we had 38
percent testing low; 40 in the medium; 6 in the
high and 16 in the very high.
Now, let us take a look at the lawns
that had been established for some time. You
will note that we are getting a greater number
up in this area. As I mentioned to you earlier,
you can build phosphate up in the soil. It does
not move. When you apply it, it stays where you
put it. So, you can see what is happening here.
We are getting a build-up over the level that we
had additional in these other lawns.
What about potash? We had 25 percent
low; 51 medium and so forth. Again, on the
established lawns, keep in mind that this
represents over 300 samples. We have the potash
level also building up; only four percent testing
low; 36 medium; 28 high and 32 very high. Potash
can be built up somewhat in these soils.
Next one. Now, what is the significance
of phosphate on fairways, greens and tees? Well,
39

we have some 46 percent of the samples in the
low to medium category. In other words, we
know that these areas need phosphate. For
example, with the soil testing medium, the
probability here of getting response is about
50 percent with turf.
Now, the greens. You will notice
that we are getting a build-up of phosphate.
With tests, this value here, of course, is based
on an average of some 40 samples. So we have to
note this with care. We have quite a few of our
testings up in this upper range.
Next slide. This is a summary of the
potash results. Now, you will note that we are
getting some of our soils in this range. Let
us first study the fairways and greens here.
Here we are not getting a build-up of potash as
we were with phosphate. For example, with the
fairways we have 2, 25, 37 and 36. With the
greens we have 40, 31, 12 and 17.
Now, I have studied soil test
summaries that Dr. Daniel has worked up for
the turf soils from the Midwest, and he has found
very similar results for those soils there. He
finds that the potash does not build up to as near
a high level as the phosphate. Also, he has found
that the potash in greens does not build up as
rapidly as it does in the fairways. Of course, I
think there is good reason for this.
In the case of the greens, you are often
removing the clippings. Of course, the clippings
are high in potash. For each 1,000 square feet
during a season, you will remove about three pounds
of potash. In the case of the fairways the clippings
are not often removed so the potash returns to the
40

soilo So, this is the reason that you do not get
as many falling in this range for the greens as
you do with the fairways.
Now, with the test—this data is a
little hard to explain. I want to bring out
the fact that there were not a large number of
samples involved here. So, you could get the
results that you would want to not put a lot of
confidence in.
Now, does that about complete it? Oh,
we have one more shot yet. I just wanted to show
this one to bring out the fact that a well rounded
soil fertility program is important in producing
good turf. Here is an area with no treatment.
This is lime, molybdenum, potassium and phosphate.
This is in the case of nitrogen, phosphate and
potash. Here is lime, nitrogen and potassium.
Lime, nitrogen and phosphate. This is not a good
idea of giving good attention to one element but a
matter of a well rounded program.
The factors I have pointed out here
this morning have been the reactions of lime in the
soil. I wanted to give you a few fundamentals that
are involved here.
Thank you very much.

THE TURFGRASS PLOTS AT RUTGERS
DR. RALPH ENGEL, Rutgers University%
The turfgrass program in New Jersey began
in the mid-twenties. Musgrave made the first plantings—some trial plots. Dr. H. B. Sprague followed
with his enthusiastic interest and activity as head
41

of the Agronomy Department o Dr<> E. Eo Evaul was
a graduate student during the early part of this
period and became a full time turf worker by the
early thirties o Dr® Longnecker was a graduate
student during the thirties? following this he
worked full time on turf until 1947 except for
the war years» In those earlier years the New
Jersey research program gave understanding of turfgrasses for our area and contributed classic
information on the use of lime in turfgrass
productiono You will recall the benefits they
demonstrated for liming s
1® Improved moisture conditions of well
limed soils o
2 o Better decay of organic residue with
proper liming®
3 o The slow penetration of lime on
established turfgrass®
In other words, we have heard it said
that a well limed soil is more draught or draft
resistant, and Dr® Longnecker°s work helped explain
this® By the way, Dr® Miller was very much interested
with your results of lime and potash, and I have
summarized our results® I didn°t publish them, but
they follow your picture very closely® At the time
I was rather chagrined at the various tees and lawns
that needed seeding® 1 think we can stay with the
fundamentals when we start to do some work with the
turf grass here®
I came to New Jersey in the Summer of 1947®
I worked research, teaching and extension in turfgrass management® Part of the funds for my salary
came from golf course subscriptions until JUiy, 1954®
In the Spring of 1957, a full time extension
specialist, Dr® Skogley was appointed, and I was
assigned to full time research and teaching in turf42

grass 0 Last year we bad our first full time position
for turfgrass plot foreman o Thus, we have reached
a stage where extension and the plot research program
are no longer on a part time basis o
This may not seem like a Cinderella story,
but we are thankful for our progress0 It takes time
to sell turfgrass as a commodity and then establish
a program in the face of a major depression, a World
War, and austerity programs with public money0
A few States have developed the mechanics
of their turfgrass program more rapidly, but others
are still looking for the start« We like to tell
our story, not as an example, but to show progress
can be had with continued planning and persistence o
Some of you have heard me tell or you have
read of some more recent work that has occurred at
New Jersey since World War II, wetting agent use
with turf herbicides, potassium cyanate on Bluegrass
turf, turfgrass cultivation, nitrogen carrier
stimulation, and goosegrass control results have
been given at your conference and various meetings o
Today I wish to tell you of some more recent results o
Our nitrogen carrier studies have been
continuado You will recall that at the National
Meeting in Washington, we reported more uniform
growth stimulation from repeat applications of
ureaform than from an equivalent amount in a single
applicationo Also, we found significantly less dollar
spots with Milorganite than with equivalent amounts
of other nitrogen carriers0
In other words, the type of nitrogen we
use would not serve as a control but it is very
interesting to find something like thiSo We know
there are other things in nitrogen besides fertiliser0
43

We know what the effect would be if we could
unscramble and find and determine, and tack
down the side effects« Possibly we would have
some base for a nice development in the future 0
These results with ureaform and some
field performance observations led us to take
a deeper look at this type of nitrogen carrier—
namely, the various fractions or contents0 A
preliminary step was comparing the short term
stimulation from a single generous application
of ureaform with a generous fertilizer program
with a soluble carrier0
A single application of ureaform at
eight pounds of N (20 pounds) per 1,000 square
feet was compared with repeat applications of
ureaform at a rate of three-quarters of a pound
of N at two week intervals* Most men would
shudder at this latter soluble fertilizer procedure
during the warmer part of the season* This graph
shows the ureaform was far more potent in
stimulating growth during the first four weeks than
the one and a half pounds of soluble nitrogen* Thus,
we believe the 6, 8, 12 pounds of N type of ureaform
fertilization can be heavy nitrogen feeding in the
first four to six weeks*
I hadn't particularly thought of it that
way, as distinctly, until we had this experience*
How often it would occur, I don°t know, but it
happened to us this year*
An evaluation of the components found in
ureaformaldehyde was conducted as a second phase
of our study on these nitrogen carriers* The most
insoluble fraction (slow portion) and a low
solubility ureaform was observed for growth stimulation •
44

Note the great surge of growth that
occurred at four weeks plus with these materials—
even greater than we obtained with one and a half
pounds of soluble nitrogen or the more soluble
ureaformaldehydeo Some of you that are closer
than I might have been to the slide might be able
to show the low solubility0 The ureaformaldehyde
gave us a lower push than it did at that stage of
the seasono To us it shows the insoluble fraction
of ureaformaldehyde can release with a wallop«
Thus, the slow steady stimulation of the larger
application of ureaform is not realized at all times«
Thus, where steady growth is desired
with ureaform we suggest that it be used on a
smaller repeat application basis« Until it is
known with assurance that surges in growth can be
avoided, the large application is too risky on turf
situations where lushness may be fatal«
These remarks should not prevent
recognition that ureaform can be applied in large,
heavy, single applications with greater safety
than most types of nitrogen carriers« In some cases,
the more carefully controlled nitrogen level may not
be essential« Where this procedure is desirable or
tolerable it can be used«
Pre-emergence Crabgrass Control
Pre-emergence crabgrass control is
destruction of crabgrass by chemicals applied prior
to emergence which act on the crabgrass at or near
the time of germination« This is the ideal method
of control since it destroys the weed before it has
time to harm the turf« This is not a new endeavor«
You will recall that on previous occasions
we suggested that if you are using chlordane for grass,
45

you should apply this treatment before mid-April•
In other words, time the chemical treatment with
the germination period, especially for the lower
rates of the period0
We have applied the arsenate of lead
and it has been used by golf course superintendents
for many yearso Chlordane has been studied in
varied degree for about eight years o
Calcium arsenate, while used in the
past, has found revived interest in the past two
yearso Improved calcium arsenate preparations
with lower content of soluble arsenic and less lime
burn are partially responsible for the latter0
We first tested chlordane in 1955c Our
results have been good and poor0 We have best
results when the chlordane is applied dry at a
rate of 60 to 80 pounds per acre 0 We have had
essentially no results with spray applicationc
Also, we feel the application should be made in
the last half of March in the New Jersey area*
Before we recommend chlordane for general use, we
would like to know conditions that insure consistent
results o
Lead arsenate has been applied on a
number of occasions at 20 to 25 pounds per 1,000
square feeto We have never had a high degree of
control and we have had many failures with this
treatmento We are not enthusiastic over its
possibilities o
Calcium arsenate gave very good control
in 1958o No readily apparent injury occurred even
with rather high rates o We know that control and
injury tends to fluctuate sharply with the
phosphorus level and possibly other factorso
46

Dacthal and Zytron are two new preemergence crabgrass herbicides that appeared this
past seasono We had some very excellent results
with both« We might get similar results on bent
grass• We shouldn't look down on it until we have
given it a try«
To sum up§ Mid-April looks slightly
better than August for application0 I don't know
how it would work out in your area, but there might
be a similarityo
What is New Jersey's stand on pre-emergence
for 1960? We will not recommend pre-emergence crabgrass control for general use for the coming year»
What will be the decisive factors in the
pre-emergence crabgrass?
lo

Predictable and consistently good

controlo
2o Injury to turfgrasses cannot be
tolerated in general use« Grasses differ in
toleranceo Bent and Pea annua are among the most
sensitive0
Safety to turf is a major factor„ We are
dealing with potent chemicals that give control over
a period of months <> Most of these will have direct
or indirect effects on the turfgrasses0
3o The chemical treatment must permit
reseeding by the following September at the latest«
These are some of the factors that will
help make our decision on general recommendation of
pre-emergence crabgrass control«

47

Season of Fertilization on Zoysia
We found that soysia was difficult to
establish on some sites in New Jersey and at the
same time we observed that season of fertilization
had pronounced influence on zoysia development.
We established a mixed planting of Meyer
zoysia and Merion Bluegrass in 1951 and 1952. A
complete fertilizer has been used at rates that
give 0 to 6 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square
feet at different seasons.
Our data from this study of zoysia
Bluegrass fertilization shows s
I. September-October appears to be
the best time to fertilize Kentucky Bluegrass.
2o Fertilizer has not greatly enhanced
zoysia establishment at our location.
3. If benefit is obtained from zoysia
fertilization, mid-spring to early summer appears
best o

EFFECT OF PRE-EMERGENCY CHEMICALS ON THE
GERMINATION AND GROWTH OF TURFGRASSES
DR. FELIX V. JXJSKA, U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland %
My particular interest has been not so
much in the control of crabgrass as to the effect
some of the chemicals may have on the seedling
grasses. For instance, reports have come up or
people may have used some of the chemicals and then
seeded turf species two or three months or four
months later and did not obtain a stand, of course,
it could be due to weather or some other condition.
48

But the two experiments I am reporting on
are based to see if we can determine how long some
of the chemicals will be toxic.
A Greenhouse Experiment
Thirty-four flats and seven chemicals were
used. Some were applied at different rates. Soil
was high in organic matter, had a PH-6.1, and it was
high in phosphorus and potash.
Among the chemicals were chlordane,
calcium arsenate, arsenate of lead, fenac (2,3,6trichlorophenylacetic), chlordane plus lead, a
commercial arsenical (Pax). We also included D.MoA.,
the post-emergence chemical. The reason for that
being that we had many inquiries come in about it.
I spread D.M.A. on the crabgrass* When using D.McA.
you see it immediately.
Also, chlordane on vermiculite (Halts)
were applied to the soil surface at several different
rates and also at rates recommended by the manufacturer. The grasses that were used were Kentucky
Bluegrass, Poa annua. We seeded crabgrass which
wouldn't germinate for us. In the last two months
Bent grass was included.
Bent grass and Bluegrass behaved very
similarly under greenhouse conditions as did the
Poa annua.
To try to substantiate; many of you folks
have seen this experiment on the field. We setup
another study in the field, and in this case we
included the two new chemicals, or three chemicals
in this case; a product by the Lilly Pharmaceutical
Company; the Dacthal—I will not try to pronounce
these names—by the Diamond Alkali; and Dow product,
49

Zytron. To broaden the scope of the number of
grasses that we used, we included Merion, Poa
annua, crabgrass (which didn't germinate), red
fescue, Bent grass, and tall fescue. Those
were the seeded species. Of the vegetated we
used U-3 Bermuda, Zoysia and Arlington Bent
grass.
Slide. Greenhouse work. On the left,
labeled "No. 1" is a flat containing the check
and on your right is a treatment—40 pounds of
arsenate of lead per thousand square feet - quite
a heavy dose. The two grasses on the inside,
between the two flats, are Bluegrass, and the next
one would be Poa annua. Bluegrass...Poa annua;
Bluegrassoo.Poa annua. You will note the 40 pounds
of arsenate of lead held back the Bluegrass. It
is difficult to tell the check plants from the
treated plants with respect to arsenate of lead.
It didn't seem to have very much effect in inhibiting
the germination.
The same setup again. In this case we
have D . M o A o , zoysia, calcium arsenate. Bluegrass
here--Blu@grass here. You will notice very little
injury.
I should remark at this time that these
plantings were made immediately after the chemicals
were applied and then at monthly intervals for four
months. This would be the second planting. This is
our comparison with D.MoAo and calcium arsenate.
This is calcium arsenate at 12 pounds per thousand
square feet.
You will notice that in the second row
Poa annua had turned yellow and then died. Later on,
you will notice we are getting recovery and the
injury is not so severe.
50

Next slide. This one is the commercial
arsenical. You will notice that we have a reduction
in the stand of Bluegrass. In the first planting
Poa annua came up, turned yellow and died. As the
arsenical became more active, the second planting
is just up and turning yellow will die. Here are
the plantings - the second planting - the second
month turning yellow, and by the end of the experiment they will die. In order to get our data, we
made one and found out some of the plants did die
and discarded those. And then we made another one
and found some of the plants that did not die, and
we used those at the end of our experiment to obtain
our data.
Next slide. Chlordane. For some reason
chlordane is quite specific for Bluegrass and Bent
grass. Notice the Bluegrass and Bent grass and the
germination. This is the first planting immediately
after the chemical was applied. We do have some
coming up here. As time went on, under greenhouse
conditions, we didn°t get as much improvement as we'd
like with chlordane treatment. Very little effect
on the germination of red and tall fescue.
Next slide. This is an experimental
chemical, rather hot. As you can see, the grass has
germinated and turned yellow and soon died. This is
the fenac that 1 mentioned previously, four pounds
per acre.
Next slide. This data is for Bluegrass
planted under greenhouse conditions, and here we
have the planting date. One hundred seeds were
planted to obtain this data. Here is the check or
control for November, December, January and February.
The fenac, numbered "1" here, as you can see, was
quite effective in keeping everything down.

51

Let's take chlordane. As a whole, you
will notice on Bluegrass we have a large reduction
and we didn't get any pickup, even at the end of
four months• So that is how long it remained
toxic and prevented the germination of Bluegrass
under greenhouse conditions« These plants were
watered with a fine nozzle sprinkler. Even the
areas where the plants did not come up were
watered as thoroughly as the others, and they were
kept uniformly watered.
Here we have lead - 10, 20 and 40 pounds.
You will notice in the first month there wasn't too
much effect. First and second month, somewhat down
from the check and I would say, naturally, it is
reduced somewhat, but not too seriously? that if
you planted a seedling you'd get a pretty good stand
of Bluegrass.
Pax is a commercial arsenical. You will
notice what is happening with that, and these are
plant counts - 23, 3, 7 and 17. It is perking up
a little bit at that end. However, the plants were
harvested, as I mentioned, four months after the
treatment began, and I don't know but what some of
those may have died if they would have stayed in
there longer.
DoM.Ao, applied as a pre-emergence, and
it is a post-emergence chemical? reduced the
germination perhaps a little but not enough to be
significant.
I might call your attention to Halts at
the bottom. It behaves as the chlordane did up here,
all the way for the four month period.
Slide shows Poa annua planted in the
greenhouse. Take all three of the chlordane treatments
52

together* It did not effect the germination of
the Poa annua as severely as it did the Bluegrass.
Arsenate of lead* Calcium arsenate was
effective about the third month, and at the heavier
rate we had two-thirds control in December and,
again, due to the ideal conditions, we did not get
the control of Poa annua that we did out in the
field* In the field we obtained much better control
with calcium arsenate at the 12 pound rate *
Pax is consistently performing as it has
previously* DoM«Ao, no effect* Halts, very little
effect. Little in the third month here as far as
Poa annua is concerned0
Next slide* On this axis we have the
plant count* Here we have the chemicals. I picked
out about four or five chemicals to include in the
chart. These are the planting dates*
Let°s take arsenate of lead* You will
notice, except for one month, January, that°s the
second month that the control we obtained was not
too different from the check* Apparently, more of
the lead became soluble or some other thing happened
with the chemical* It is more effective* We got
quite a bit of reduction on the Bluegrass in the
second month.
Calcium arsenate*
different than the control.

Significantly

Next slide* Here is a picture with Poa
annua* Here are the planting dates again* Arsenate
of lead, DoMoAo and decontrol - no significant
difference here* However, we run into a difference
when we use calcium arsenate* We are getting a
reduction of germination and the commercial arsenical
53

is down in this area here.
Chlordane reacted somewhat differently;
in that, I believe, that is the first Month,
November. It didn°t inhibit germination very
much at all but, as time went on, it lowered down
to about 50 and 45 percent.
Next slide. Field Work Grasses. Merion
Bluegrass, Poa annua, crabgrass, red fescue, bent
grass, tall fescue. In the last are the educated;
U-3, zoysia, Arlington Bent. These were planted,
the seeds as well as the vegetated material,
immediately after the application of the chemicals.
Calcium arsenate. No response as far as
germinations Fescue is starting to come up here.
U-3 Bermuda is holding but the vegetated zoysia is
burnt very badly.
The next strip is arsenate of lead. You
will notice the Bluegrass showing up quite well.
Poa annua is coming. Red fescue very little. Notice
the lead at 25 pounds does not inhibit germination
very severely across the line.
Now, the next slide. Chlordane type.
Notice it is taking the Bluegrass up and taking the
bent grass up here. There is a little bit over here.
It seems quite specific for Bluegrass and bent grass.
Red fescue and tall fescue comes through very well
with the treatment of chlordane. Not too much effect
on Poa annua.
Next slide. These are the remainder of
the chemicals. We had five previously. We have
five more here. Zytron is very effective in holding
down the germination of all the grass species, turf
species, that were seeded. Except for U-3 Bermuda,
54

we didn°t see too much grass—vegetated grasses
coming«
The known alkali Dacfchal is another
hot chemical« We did get some of the Bermuda
and zoysia coming here and some of the
Arlington Bent« That was four pounds per acre^
rather than the recommended amount« I believe
it is 12 pounds« The Dow material was put on at
20 pounds on established turf«
Here is the arsenical Pax« Even U-3
had quite a time with it, and it persists quite
awhile in the soil«
Chlordane on vermiculite or Halts is
specific for Bluegrass and bent grass«
This slide was taken in September«
This is the September seeding, calcium arsenate.
Notice the effect of calcium arsenate is still
persisting in the soil« There may be many reasons
for it. Perhaps the organic matter in the soil
may be as high as can be« The PH was about 5«5 a little low«
So, there are many factors« And, in
our situation, I think that the weather conditions
were so poor in the Fall, in September and August,
to get seedlings that we had to discard that data
as far as making our table, and getting this
material to publish« The results of it were too
graphic to be consistent.
Next slide« Chlordane in the field
reacts, apparently, considerably different than in
the greenhouse. At the end of four months we are
still not getting the germination of the grass
species«
55

By the way, the same five are seeded there;
Merion, Poa annua, red fescue, bent and tall fescue.
So, at the end of about four months chlordane doesn't
seem to effect the germination too much out in the
field.
Next slide. Here is the Dow material.
At the end of four months we are getting some of the
seeds through. Apparently, the Bluegrass is still
being affected. The strange part about it is we
have another seeding made in October. That is one
of the plots in which we used the Dow material as
well as the calcium arsenate, which were severely
affected even in October.
Now, either the site or the location was
just slightly higher. Either it was not watered as
uniformly as the rest of the area or when it rained,
the rain did not wash the material away. So, we do
have that difference even between applications.
Next slide. Commercial arsenical. That
will hold true to form. At one of the meetings in
the Mid-west I talked to several golf course
superintendents who have applied calcium arsenate
instead of the Pax here. They were unable to get a
seedling in their fairways. I was wondering if
calcium arsenate might have been in effect after
the type of Summer that we had.
(J
I°d like to briefly summarize what we had
so far and reiterate again that chlordane seems
quite specific in inhibiting germination of both
Bluegrass and bent grass. So, if a person applies
it in the Spring, it may depend somewhat on the
weather as to whether you may or may not get a good
seedling in the Fall.

56

With respect to Poa annua, we had a
decrease in germination reading• However, it
had little effect on the other species«. Apparently, it seems to do a better job on Poa annua«,
DoMoAo, no effect as far as germination
was concernedo
With calcium arsenate, as you may
remember, under greenhouse conditions we had
pretty good germination; perhaps a third
reduction, when you consider there were about
2,000,000 seeds per pound, say, of Bluegrass and
about nine of bent grass * The third reduction
would not be too severe. You still should get a
pretty good stand. This did not occur under
present conditions. In time it will inhibit it.
The germination lasts somewhat longer.
Another thing I did, which I have not
completed in its entirety; that is, to take a
sample of the leaves with these various treatments;
that is, the arsenical treatments, to see whether
or not we have a reduction in the amount of phosphorus that is being taken up when the arsenical
is appliedo
I believe Bill Daniels and some others
may have done some work, indicating there may have
been a reduction in taking up the phosphorus and
taking up the arsenicals«,
As you see, you will see grass«, I have
observed plots at Beltsville that have been treated
two years ago, and the second year they looked as
bad or worse than they did the first year0
When I was in Ohio at their field day,
we looked at some plots over there«, I asked
57

Dr. Davis if he had observed any injury. We hadn't
gotten out to the plots that were strung out. They
were treated the year before. You could pick out
the Pax plot. There was a thinning in the turf.
I would like to mention just a word or
two about the October seedling. When compared to
the check, calcium arsenate had still reduced the
germination of the five grasses. We planted five
species, approximately one-third. That was in
October - October seedling.
Chlordane results were somewhat erratic
and seemed to be more effective on one species
than another. We had some reduction with the
Zytron.
With the Pax material we had, approximately,
one-third reduction in germination. However, I went
out the other day, just before coming up here, to
see what the yellow seedlings were doing and they
were all there. So, with the cold weather and the
effect of the chemical they had died. So, our
results with Pax have not been too good from the
standpoint of obtaining a seedling.
perhaps some of you have used Pax in the
Spring and then overseeded in the Fall. You may
have wondered why you did not get a stand. The
conditions may have been different. These chemicals
should be watched, and we should do more work with
them before you go to the laymen and go out and use
them.
Thank you.

58

CRABGRASS CONTROL
DRo DAYTON KLXNGMAN, ü. S. Department of
Agriculture 2
Questions are numerous for controlling
crabgrass.
I want to reiterate it is important to
practice good lawn management in any weed control
program® We must start with a good vigorous turf
if we are going to make any progress with the weed
control procedures o
As you well know, if you will follow good
lawn management, many of the weed problems will not
exist. However, there are always slips or other
interfering processes that cause breaks in the turf
and you do have weeds occurring, and it is for this
reason that many of the weeds that are problems have
to be corrected or have to be controlled.
So, then we have to start with a good
soil condition, good soil texture, adequate drainage
and liming and good soil fertility® We have to use
adapted species• We have to control insects and
diseases ®
Many of you are also well aware of the
importance of height in cut on the vigor and health
of many turf species® Bluegrass, at least, should
not be cut down within three-quarters of the inch,
three-quarters of the surface, if you expect to
maintain a vigorous turf® The vigor is reduced and
weeds come in equally and are equally encouraged.
Close cutting of turf not only reduces the vigor
of the grass, it reduces the temperature of the soil
and, equally important, it increases the ability of
the turf grasses to compete.
59

Crabgrass, being an annual species,
depends on seed germination each year for
establishment. Crabgrass cannot tolerate deep
shade. If you can maintain adequate cover and
shade on the soil, crabgrass will not be much of
a problem.
May we have the first slide, please?
Slide. You will notice the percent of
herbicide and check treatments on the left, the
date applied in the center and the mowing height
in the two columns on the right. The mowing
rates are three-quarter inches, and two and a half
inches. You will notice that the other check there
was 58 percent crabgrass when a height of mowing
was three-quarters inch.
By the way, these mowing machine tests
have been applied three years. This was the third
year of the experiment. The height of cut at one
and a half inches only had 18 percent crabgrass in
1958.
BoM.Ao (disodium meta arsenate) is pretty
good for control of crabgrass after it has been
established. Treatments also must be repeated at
seven to ten day intervals for two or more treatments o
Do not use D.M.A. during hot weather when
the soils are dry. often there is some discoloration
resulting from treatment but usually the turf outgrows this within a few days if growing conditions
are favorable.
Chlordane is only moderately effective
for crabgrass control in our experiments at Beltsville.
We get considerable variation.
60

For that reason we made it moderately
effective. It is most effective if treatments
are put on a short time before germination of
crabgrass seeds and when combined with a good
turf cover. It is also effective for the control
of grubs.
Let's see Slide No. 2. This is
Dr. Juska's experiment. I wanted to show you
there the control we got on crabgrass with one
and a half pounds per thousand of chlordane, 52
percent control. The calcium arsenate gave
satisfactory control at 12 pounds per acre.
Eight pounds would be considered marginal. This
is considered an average of three different dates
of treatment that Dr. Juska had worked out. It
is for an average taken in the Fall, Winter and
Spring treatments.
The Fall and Spring treatments were
slightly superior to the Winter treatment with
these chemicals in this experiment. The calcium
arsenate has given good control of crabgrass at
the rate of 10 to 16 pounds per thousand, depending
on the soil texture and the phosphorus in the soil.
Heavier rates may injure turf.
Zytron is a trademark name put out by the
chemical people as a new organic chemical showing
promise for crabgrass control when applied at about
20 pounds per acre. It has relatively low acute
oral toxicity for dogs and cats. It is primarily
effective through root absorption although there is
slight contact activity when applied for postemergence to crabgrass.
Both granular and spray formulations were
effective in experiments that we had in Beltsville.
61

Zytron has been reported to be effective
for control of nimble Will. We are now talking
about nimble Will, but many of you have had trouble
with this weedy perennial. Thirty to forty pounds
per acre can be applied on nimble Will for control
without appreciable injury to the Kentucky Bluegrass
Kentucky Bluegrass appears to be highly
tolerant to sprays of Zytron as is also Bermuda
grass and Zoysia.
There was considerable discoloration and
development of a purple colored foliage of red
fescue in the experiments we had in Beltsville this
year. The red fescue recovered to some extent. I
can't say we killed the red fescue, we definitely
discolored it with the treatments.
Contact injury is reported for centipede
grass, St. Augustine grass and bent grass. Injury
symptoms are usually outgrown within a few weeks.
Dacthal is a trademark name for another
long named chemical. It is put out by the Diamond
Alkali Company. It has shown promise for preemergence control of crabgrass in turf. Because of
its low solubility in water, it remains at or near
the surface of the soil for a long period. It has
very low acute toxicity.
We will have some more data on Zytron and
Dacthal•
Here is an experiment also run in 1959.
You will notice that this data shown here is
average of estimates made on October 6, 1959. The
percent of crabgrass shows the percent of control.
Actually, the ratings were made as percent of crabgrass and subtracted from 100. Therefore, it shows
62

18 percent control for a check« That means we only
had 82 percent covered in the check.
The calcium arsenate at 10 pounds per
thousand gave 94 percent of crabgrass and 12 percent
reduction in stand and vigor or Kentucky Bluegrass
and about two percent on Zoysia« That is an estimate.
Calcium arsenate at 16 pounds per thousand
gave perfect crabgrass control but severe injury on
Kentucky Bluegrass, and even some injury on Zoysia.
Zytron, as a spray at 20 pounds per acre,
gave 74 percent control of crabgrass with no
appreciable--no visible injury on Kentucky Bluegrass
or Zoysia* The same on the granular portion gave the
same result.
Dacthal at seven and a half pounds per
acre gave 92 percent control of crabgrass. The ten
pound rate gave better control of crabgrass and,
probably, will be required to give the kind of control
that most of us would like to have.
Chlordane, again, gave a relatively poor
control, only 48 percent control. I want to reiterate
that with this experiment almost all of the crabgrass
germinated and became established in July. It was on
a rather droughty site, sandy soil, and the rains
were infrequent during the spraying and we didn°t have
crabgrass established in these plots.
Under the conditions we had this year we
got rather good control.
In conclusion, may I again say that any
weed control program should start with the best lawn
management practices available to assure a good cover
of vigorous turf grasses.
63

Crabgrass can be killed by supplemental
treatments of D.M.A«, and P.M.A. applied postemergence *
There are a number of herbicides that
show promise as pre-emergence treatments for
control of crabgrass s
1. Calcium arsenate. Follow
instructions on the label.
2. Zytron. About 20 pounds an acre.
3. Dacthal. About 10 pounds an acre.
Pre-emergence herbicides, generally, are
injurious to new seedings of grasses. If pre-emergence
herbicide is used, delay seeding grasses until the
following Fall.
Thank you.

WE OPENED A NEW GOLF COURSE
DR. FRED v. GRAU, Chief Agronomist,
Nitroform Agricultural Chemical Company, Woonsocket,
Rhode Islands
In preparation for this panel, I sent to
each member a questionnaire asking certain pertinent
questions, basic questions, fact questions, concerning
the beginning of the course: Who was the architect and
who built it?
My first act is to introduce each member of
the panel.
JOHN BURT, Turf Valley Country Club,
Ellicott City, Maryland.

64

GEORGE Co GUMM, Ocean City Golf and Yacht
Club,
Berlin, Maryland.
LOUIS LAMP, Winchester Golf and Country Club,
Winchester, Virginia.
FRED SAPPENFIELD, Willow Oaks Country Club,
Richmond, Virginia.
BERT YINGLING, Beaver Creek Country Club,
Hagerstown, Maryland.
DR. GRAU: John Burt is first.
did you come on this job?
MR. BURT:

John, when

June 15th of this past year,

Doctor.
DR. GRAU:
been built?

How long after the course had

MR. BURT: Construction was started in
January of 1958. The planting was done a year ago
this past Fall. The construction was completed when
I took the job as superintendent.
DR. GRAU: Ault & Jamison were the architects
and Sam Pistorio built it. What was seeded on the tees?
MR. BURT: The information I have is 40 percent Merion, 55 percent Illinois fescue and 5 percent
Highland Bent. That is on tees. On the fairways, it
was 20 percent Merion, 25 percent Kentucky Bluegrass,
50 percent red fescue and 5 percent on the Highland
Bent.
DR. GRAU: Do you see any indication that
the Highland Bent is taking over the other grasses?
65

MR. BURT:

The Merion is more aggressive.

DRo GRAU:

How about your greens?

MR. BURT: The greens were planted to
stolons C-l, C-19 and C-7 in equal parts. The
back nine were planted in August-September, 1958
and the front nine in October-November, 1958. When
I took the job in June they had 100 percent coverage
with the exception of one or two greens with a few
bare spots.
DR. GRAU:
be blending?

How do those grasses seem to

MR. BURT: Good. I let them get a little
off-color. I slipped up on the fertilizer for a
week.
Question:
per thousand?
Answer:

How many bushels were planted

Ten bushels per thousand.

Question:
fertilizer?

What about the fairway

Answer: Fairways was one ton of 5-10-5
per acre in the seed bed. That was followed up
with 800 pounds per acre of the same 5-10-5 in the
Spring, 1959. In the Fall of 1959 we used 700 pounds
of the 5-10-5.
Questions Now, your soil mix for the
greens. I noticed you have one part topsoil. Is
that clay loam?
Answer:
that area.

It is more of a silty loam in

66

Questions

One part sand.

Was that coarse

or fine?
Answers
part peat.
Questions

It was concrete sand, also one

All three were mixed on the

site?
Answers
Questions
the greens?

Yes.
What about the drainage under

Answer § There was none under the greens.
They were so constructed that they have excellent
surface draining. There are four or five different
angles that the greens do drain. They dry out very
readily.
Questions I noticed you report there was
only slight erosion.
Answers When I took the course over,
there was no erosion.
Questions Very fine. Now, I ask the
question, what would you do if you were to be on
another new course that was going to be built?
What sort of things would you like to see done
that would make your next course even better than
this one?
Answers These are just minor things.
There are a couple of items. One is eliminate
roadways during construction. I notice that there
are two or three former road areas in very bad
shape. Another one I listed, don't rush the
construction of tees. By that I mean the seeding
67

mainly. In several of our tees it is evident they
were planted too soon, and now they have settled
and are very uneven.
One other thing IB d like to see or I
think should be done is traps on new construction.
I think they should be completed at the same time
the green is completed. Completely dug out, edged,
and formed, and any chemicals to be used to eliminate your weeds should be used at that time because
I found that it is a big job later on. Right now
we are doing a lot of damage on the course getting
those traps in shape.
Question: Apparently, you are quite
satisfied with the irrigation system?
Answers Yes, sir. I have had a complete
fairway system, including the landing area, approach
area and then risers at each green.
AUDIENCE: What was the depth of the
rooting medium, the topsoil mix?
Answer:

I think it is about 12 inches.

DR. GRAU: The next member of the panel
is George Gumm. George has a few slides.
You gave me a very complete rundown here,
George. First, let me get a few facts and fundamentals out of the way. Construction was started
May, 1958 and you opened the course June 27, 1959.
Now, were you there when the construction was
started?
Answers No, I came when everything was
done, February 15, 1959.

68

Questions The course architect and
builder was William F. Gordon and Son.
For the tees, there was planted
Kentucky Blue, Creeping Red Fescue, Kentucky
Highland Bent and Red-top? 200 pounds of seed
to the acre. Are you sure that was enough?
Answers

Yes, the tees were beautiful.

Questions The fairways were Kentucky
Bluegrass, Creeping Red Fescue, Highland Bent and
Red-top, the same mixture at 150 pounds to the
acre. How do they look?
Answer s
Questions
hear right?

Fair.
I beg your pardon?

Did 1

Answers That course was built—first,
I will tell you the course is flat. The approaches
at three fairways are Merion Blue, and at this
point they are beautiful.
Questions

How old is that Merion Blue

now?
Answers

About two and a half months.

Questions The greens were seeded with
Pencross at a pound and a half to a thousand square
feet. How do they look?
Answer s They were seeded in September
and the water system wasn't on due to an electrical
difficulty. Before the water was turned down, I
think it was 14 days, they had a severe storm. So,
you can imagine what happened—soil and seed moved
69

on the greens.
Next slide. We opened all greens
June 27th. Eight greens were opened on May 30th.
They were all covered. There were no bare spots,
fortunately.
Next slide. That is Senator Chandler
and me on the green. You see all these little
plugs there? They're not air fired holes. That's
the plug. All these greens washed into the low
areas and drained off. We had to come out—our
nursery is 6,000 feet and we couldn't use it. It
wasn't good enough for the turf, no roots. So,
we came out and any place we can get grass, we
would take the plugs and move them around. We had
four men doing that and that is the result.
Next slide. One green was rebuilt in
November, 1959, with tile, stone and some sand. I
used the same top dressing—that was on the green—
plus about 80 yards more of our own mix of sand,
humus and soil. We resodded that green one week
before Christmas.
They say, "Where is the water in the
other greens?" It is still in them. We are having
more trouble with our greens today than we have had
all Summer. We have had good greens in the Summer
because it was dry weather. Right now our traps
are even with the bottom of the greens and they are
holding so much water that it is rotting out the
bottom of the green. The seventeenth green I had
no trouble with it all Summer. Right now I am
having trouble with it. It is closed.
We are in the process now of tiling all
our sand traps. That is going to be expensive. We
are low. We have a lot of problems, as any course
70

has.
I want to read about the rainfall. In
April we had five inches; May, nine-tenths of an
inch; June, 2.9; July, fourteen and a half inches
of rain in one week; August, 2.7; September, not
a drop; October, 6.7; November, 5; December, 4.9.
That gives you an idea what rainfall will do. If
it wasn't for the fairways, I guess we'd all be
better off if it never rained, wouldn't we?
All our tees are about 3,000 square feet.
They're seeded in the same mixture as the fairways,
double rate, of course, we want to go to Bermuda.
We are experimenting with it now. We have some U-3,
328 and Meyer Zoysia working.
What would I do on a new course? I would
tile and stone all the greens. All greens would be
7,000 feet and large putting greens would be about
12,000. I would have a water system turned on when
seeding and three outlets to a green. I would mix
the soil off the site.
Question;

What about fertilizers?

Answer; Our fertilization cost in the
Spring was $4,671.46; in the Fall, $4,350.00. Next
year we expect to spend, approximately, $4,392.00.
This includes lime, of course, which was $1,000.00
this Fall.
Gypsum for the greens, lime for the greens,
20-20, ureaform nitrogen fertilizer for the greens
and a 20-10-10 analysis on our fairways at about
100 pounds an acre of 20-10-10. The tees receive
about four pounds of ureaform nitrogen. We have a
very nice setup down there, something we are very
proud of.
71

DR. GRAUs Louis Lamp from Winchester
Golf and Country Club.
Construction of a second nine was
started October, 1956 and the course opened
May 24, 1959. What took so long?
MR. LAMP: There was just the three of
us and we had to maintain the first nine and build
the new one.
Questions
hole course?
Answers

You constructed this new nine

Yes, even clearing the land.

Questions
architects.

Finley and Loving were the

Tell us about the tees.
Answer: We sodded the tees with Bluegrass and seeded them with Bermuda.
Questions

Where did you get the Blue-

grass?
Answer:

On the land I had on the

property.
Questions

How old was the Bluegrass?

Answers Old pasture land. This farm we
purchased was a grass farm and its been in Bluegrass
for years.
Question:
Answers

Is is a limestone soil?
It is.
72

As a matter of fact, very

thin soil.
Questions

How did your Bermuda take?

Answer s Taken fine and had good coverage.
Bermuda was planted in June when we started the tees
in 1957, and gave a good cover.
Questions
and with what seed?

Tell us when greens were seeded

Answers Labor Day. I planted all nine
greens in one day, using less than a pound of Pencross per 1,000 square feet.
Fertilizer applied was 400 pounds of
10-6-4 for an average green of 5,000 square feet
the day the seeding was done.
Questions Tell us about your soil
mixture for the greens.
Answers It is shaley soil. We have a
lot of hilly ground and the soil, say, in years
past has washed into the hollow. We found one
hollow that was filled up 10 or 12 feet with soil.
We dug this soil out of the hollow and hauled it
to the site.
We put our base in and contoured the
grade. We put our top soil in from 18 to 20
inches deep. We had plenty of it. We added from
40 to 60 tons of coarse sand to each green.
Then we took a two horsepower plow backwards and forwards, and that was in 1957 and then
we laid off until 1958. We rolled them and plowed
them, and harrowed them and dug them just like you
would a field, and rolled them and seeded them.
73

Questions How long did you give those
things a chance to settle?
Answers Two years, two seasons. Every
time any vegetation showed a weed killer was
applied.
Question; I want to know a little bit
about this shale. This is one of the first times
that the word, "shale" has come into the conversation here in building greens. Is this shale a
well drained material?
Answers It is when you dig it out. In
getting it out it is solid. It lays in crevices
and it lays in these hills and it is very tight.
Once you get it out and broken up and on the ground,
the water runs off of it. It has very good drainage.
Questions Apparently, you feel pretty
good about the Pencross Bent grass. You stated it
is good in every way. It holds the color, takes
little maintenance, has deep roots and resists
disease. What else do you give as your reason?
Answer s I sprayed this course on the average
of once a month all during the Summer.
Questions

Once a month?

Answer: One a month on the new nine. On
the old nine, I sprayed every seven days. On the
new greens I had to cut down the roots which were
deeper than the bottom of the cup.
The reason it took time to build the
course was I had to maintain the old course, so I
took my time. If it wasn't right, I didn't finish
until I got it right. I drove the bulldozer and the
74

front end loader. My boy helped me. When I wasn't
driving, he was driving. We'd work two or three
days and we'd have to get back to the old nine, and
get it ready for the week-end play. As far as
particular care, it was to take time. It is the
only way. The new course is far better than the
old one.
I'd like to add it was very inviting to
the Club. They didn't think we could build it.
We purchased our own machinery. We bought the
bulldozer. We paid $2,226.00 for it. We did a
little work on it. We had a couple of hundred
dollars repair bill. We used it three seasons,
then spent a little over $800.00 on it and sold it
for $2,200.00.
Questions Didn't you have the Mid-Atlantic
Association members there at your course?
Answer s They played the course in July
and were enthusiastic about the new greens.
Questions How deep was the shale under
the 18 inches of topsoil?
Answer % It was a contour running anywhere
from two foot to five foot of solid shale.
AUDIENCE s Any organic material in the
mixture?
Answers

From six to eight tons of rooted

sawdust.
DRo GRAUs That is a masterpiece of work.
You had that on the course that was nearby. What
about the sand?

75

Answers It was 12 miles away.
to eight tons per green.

We used six

DR. GRAU: Fred Sappenfield, Willow Oaks
Country Club, Richmond, Virginia, reported on a
completely different territory. We are getting
into the Bermuda territory. We are going to leave
that beautiful shale.
Construction started in January, 1958.
Nine holes were opened in September, 1958 and the
eighteen, which were the permanent greens, the 13th
of June, 1959.
Architects were William F. and Dave Gordon.
Builders were William F. and Dave Gordon. Construction was by Frank Durant.
There was wet weather during construction.
MR. SAPPENFIELD: All tees were planted to
common Bermuda at the same rate as the fairways,
which was 100 pounds of Arizona Bermuda to the acre.
Bermuda.
Bermuda?

Question: You got one tee of Tifgreen
How does that stack up against your common

Answers I believe that Tifgreen in our
area gives the finest tee possible. We had some U-3
Bermuda in the area but Tifgreen heals very much
faster.
Question:

Is it greener?

Answer: Yes. Tifgreen as compared to
common Bermuda is greener much earlier in the Spring.
This year it was the 15th to 20th of December before
it lost its greenness.

Questions Your greens are Cohansey, ten
bushels of stolons to the thousand. Any special
method of planting?
Answers

Usual method.

It was scattered

evenly.
I'd like to give you just a little data
on the Club. It might embarrass some of our friends
that build so cheaply. This Club was organized in
the Fall of 1957 with $375,000.00. It was understood that no construction would begin unless this
money was in the till. They were able to secure
that stock and, in addition, on January 1st, with no
hopes of a golf course that year other than playing
on temporary greens, we had 800 members0 dues paid
in as of January 1st. The initiation fees for
Class A members, of which we had 350 plus, was $600.00.
The lowest classification we had was a child membership with an initiation of $225.00. That sounds like
a lot of money. So, we decided to disburse with it
immediately.
The original property was $236,000.00?
the golf course, including architect fees, $158,000.00?
equipment, $17,000.00? a new addition to the old building was $175,000.00 plus? swimming pool, $48,000.00?
tennis court, $7,000.00? house furnishings? $13,000.00?
office equipment, $4,000.00? dining room and kitchen,
$29,000.00? sewage plant, $21,000.00, for a total of
$717,000.00 and we still do not have a locker room.
This picture shows the clubhouse that was
purchased and there was one outbuilding. It was used
as a double garage and also the servants 1 quarters.
And into this promising layout these 800 members began
paying their dues on the 1st of January, 1958. We can
offer them refreshments in the snack bar. The backside
of the clubhouse, if you will shift it to the other
77

side, you will see the new clubhouse addition.
This is the $175,000.00 plus new addition built
onto the old building. Having no golf facilities
at all and construction having begun in January
of 1958, I came on the job in April, and began
planning a putting green of Tifgreen.
Here you see an area in front of the
clubhouse that later had become the parking lot
and that is as it appeared. We have everything;
crowfoot, dandelions, anything you like is on that
plat. Sodium arsenate was used to kill broadleafi
weeds in that plat.
Next slide. Having about $100.00, we
hired this tractor with operator for $6.00 an hour.
This is 28 tons of sand, coarse; sharp sand on
about 3,000 square feet. Peat is already in the
soil and the operator is beginning to spread the
sand.
Next slide. This is the hard method of
putting in Bermuda grass or any grass. This is
Tifgreen being planted in rows. Fifty-eight
man-hours were required to complete the 3,000
square feet. This is four weeks0 growth.
Next slide. This putting green was
started the latter part of May, and this picture
shows the putting green on July 15th when opened.
Next slide. Meanwhile, construction on
the golf course was rapidly going ahead. This is
No. 14 hole as I saw it on April 15th.
That is No. 7 green.
right toward the tee.
Next slide.

You are looking

This is the No. 1 tee, and
78

herein is probably a fault of not having the proper
person in on specifications. It is such a tight
tee that only about 20 yards of the fairways (the
right-hand side) is playable because of the overhanging limbs on these oak trees as they protrude
some 30 or 40 feet into the fairway. This is a
sharp dog-leg to the left? therefore, you have to
play it away from the hole in order to have a shot
at it.
These next two pictures will show the
construction of the No« 2 tee, which to me was
quite a feat. I don't know why he spent so much
time on it but he did explain later. Perhaps as
we go along we will see the purpose for it.
This soil was hauled some 500 yards
distance in order to build up this tee.
Next slide. I just wondered if he would
make that turn, and he did and he went right on into
the next slide.
This is the same tee with the general
subsoil, all green. Very poor white clay, almost
impervious to water as are most of the greens on
the topside. His purpose for spending so much time,
and I thank him for that, was to have that tee which
you see way in the background. That was the particular
tee that we saw him working on and it was to get it
up to where most of the green would be visible for
a tee shot«
Next slide« This is our water supply.
We are fortunate in having a three and a half to four
acre pond, 75 to 80 feet deep, along the premises and
it is not a stagnant pond. There is a break to the
left of this quarry. It is an old abandoned quarry.
That is a real good stream of water.
79

The water system consisted of 11,000
feet of galvanized pipe. This is a four inch
main going out to the center of the golf course.
All tee outfits are an inch and a
quarter pipes to three-quarters of an inch outlet
and they are snapped down to the coupling. All
green outlets are an inch and a quarter with the
Skinner type hookup.
All fairway ditches where the pipeline
was built were tapped down with this hydraulic
affair to prevent settling and it certainly did
prove its worth because in the areas where it was
not used, the settling was as much as six to eight
inches. It would have been a problem if you left
the fairways in that condition.
The next two slides will show you some
of the topsoil.
Three hundred yards below that, we are
in the bottom land. That is completely silt. You
can see the water seepage as he bulldozed.
About six or seven acres on the upper
ground was a turf area that consisted mostly of
weeds, some Bluegrasses, but very little. They
had never been seeded; never been farmed; never been
graded in the last 25 years.
Liming progressed as fast as the land
could be prepared.
This is superphosphate and fertilizer,
which is to be applied at the same rate, 600 pounds
of 20 percent superphosphate per acre. The fertilizer was a 5-10-5 commercial type, and the rate of
application was enough fertilizer to supply two and
80

a half pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet.
This was the first area seeded, and you
are seeing about four weeks8 growth of Bermuda and
the rate it was seeded was 100 pounds per acre.
This is, probably, four weeks after the first rain.
There was no germination until we had rain*
This is just adjacent to the same area;
it is about six weeks9 growth.
Tees were way behind time in being seeded.
In most cases, a September seeding was made and the
seed was a common Bermuda. We had no grass to survive
the Winter.
The method of mixing topsoil was a one and
one mix of sand and soil. All soil was obtained on
the course. It wasn°t a very good soil. My one
objection here is, although it is probably a very
good way of mixing, the bucket, it probably holds as
much as two cubic yards of soil and two cubic yards
of sand. One bucket was put in one pile and then the
other on top of it. And that was the only mixing,
except to load it on the truck and carry it on the
green. Today, we have difficulty getting a cup in
the ground because of the huge rock content in the
ground, in the greens.
The soil was carried to the green side in
dump trucks. Specifications called for a nine inch
loose measurement of prepared mix on each green. It
is certainly inadequate. Today, we are lucky if we
have five inches of topsoil on our greens.
There was no provisions in the specifications for the treatment of greens. The green 9 s
average is 6,000 feet.
81

Greens were stolonized on September 15th.
Here you see the man on the right is dropping and
spreading the stolons® The man in the foreground
is rolling the stolons. The man on the truck is
preparing the sawdust out of the truck into the
buckets, and those men near the truck are topdressing by hand out of buckets.
Sand was carried to the traps. As often
as we could possibly get a truck to the course,
there were 47 traps on the course, it required seven
trucks, six to seven tons to a truck. We were able
to get the sand in Virginia at $3®10 a ton.

greens®

There is no tile drainage on any of the
The drainage was a problem®

All traps were deleted from the
in order to save money, about $10,000.00,
additional work that will have to be done
you don°t do it during your construction,
additional expense ®

contract
but this
later, if
will mean

If you have trees close to greens, you
will certainly have roots. This was a shining
example to me ® This picture and the next are two
right angled pictures at the 15th green, which was
the preceding hole that you saw in the shade in the
fairway® This is merely done because of the water
pipeline. We can certainly see that we are going to
have troubles in those areas.
We are fortunate in that we had very good
results with Bermuda sod in the lowland. I believe
this was the first Bermuda that the Gordons had
planted on the golf course, so I am informed, and
excellent results were obtained with Bermuda fairways.
Questions

What plans have you made to
82

remedy those greens which are unsatisfactory?
Answer: We practically lost
We are quite certain that at least one
rebuilt in the coming year. We intend
intensely and top-dress with much sand
mixture.

one green.
will be
to aerify
in the

DR. GRAU: Our next panel member is
Bert Yingling of the Beaver Creek Country Club,
Hagerstown, Maryland.
Bert°s construction started May 8, 1958
and the course was opened July 18, 1959. The
architects were Hines, Young and Yingling. Is
that you?
MR. YINGLING:
was Rueben Hines.

That's right.

The builder

Question: And you had dry, hot weather
during construction. What caused all the erosion?
Answer: That came after the course was
finished. It happened in January. We had about
two inches of rain in about 20 minutes which left
us pictures like you see in the Grand Canyon; many
large ditches. We were pretty sick the next
morning, believe me.
Question: I bet you were.
rather sloping course.
Answer:

You have a

Yes, we do.

Question: You are in clay loam in
Hagerstown, Maryland, limestone origin. The tees
were seeded to Merion and Kentucky-31, fescue
50-50 mixture.
83

Answer: Rate of seeding was heavier than
on fairways which was 85 to 90 pounds per acre. The
tees are good.
Questions You planted your greens to
Cohansey, ten bushels per thousand square feet.
Answer s That0 s correct and we are very
proud of them. In designing the course, we put most
of the green on rocky ledges having limestone rock
layer. Now, we are getting a very good underdrainage
besides having a good surface drainage.
We pushed at least 12 inches of topsoil
right on the green sites. We took, I think it was,
three parts sand, two parts soil and one part peat,
(about 20 bales per green). As we are cutting cups
now we find a very good mix throughout.
Questions
Answers

How about your roots?
Our roots are down from several

inches.
Questions Tell us about the fertilizer
where you planted your greens.
Answer s We mixed in about ten pounds of
10-6-4 fertilizer to each thousand, and we added
lead arsenate and also limed the soil. After the
grass started, we fertilized with 10-6-4. We were
mowing greens in November.
Questions Now, I think somebody already
mentioned what they did as a correction of that
severe erosion as you had in your fairways. Would
you care to elaborate on what you did to overcome
that and put it into play?
84

Answer s We were up in the air. We had to
disk up some of the front nine and reseed it. We
used some Red-top and K-31, and we got a fair stand
until the dry, hot sun hit. We used our watering
system on it.
Questions

When did you do the reseeding?

Answers That was in April, with a little
in May. Then in the Fall of the year, after not
having any grasses for the Summer in the fairway, we
reseeded with Merion and K-31.
Questions Any questions on that procedure?
Did you use any special tools?
Answers I was just going to say, incidentally, we tried aerifying. Someone told us it was
good aerifying with a steel dragnet. The ground
was too hard to get much out of that. We were very
fortunate in purchasing an alfalfa drill.
We took it and fertilized and then watered
at night, softening the ground up, and then we would
prepare, approximately, as much as we could see the
following day. Then we would take the alfalfa drill,
and with the ground soft enough, it would give us
ample coverage for our seed. To me, it is about the
only way that I believe you could seed an overseeding
and get a terrific job out of it, as we have done.
Questions
seeder at any time?
Answers

Did you employ a brilliant

Not in the latter stages.

Questions You feel that the alfalfa drill
put your seed in where it had a chance to correct
that?
85

Answer s

Definitely.

THE USE OF PESTICIDES FOR GNAT AND
MOSQUITO CONTROL ON THE GOLF COURSE
DRo GEORGE S. LANGFORD, State

Entomologist,

University of Maryland:
We have with us Mr. Bob Shields and
Mr. George Gumm who are going to talk about some
insect control on the golf course.
As a background of that, I might say that
I believe all of our green superintendents know something about insects and the need for the folding of
certain insects on turf. For example, all of you
have had grub problems, and have had chinch bug
problems and many bug problems.
In addition to that, today in some of
our localities, we have reached the point where we
are having trouble with insects where they might
affect the player. That is a condition that is
coming to the forefront more and more in certain
of our areas and some of us are going to have to do
something about that.
As I said, we have had the situation and
we have some people that are doing something about
it, and we thought today it would be worthwhile if
we could hear from some of those people and know
something of their results.
But, as a background of that, where
insecticides are used, we have other problems, and
I might say that they are somewhat personal problems;
they are problems of people. Some of them are,
probably, deserving of some consideration and others
86

might be more of an emotional type of thing.
We all know that all insecticides are
poisonous and, if improperly used, they can kill
man and they can kill other animals. There are a
lot of half-truths being spread around and there
are some people who read those things, and magnify
them and become unduly alarmed.
I just want to illustrate because these
will come to your attention if you start using
insecticides on your golf course. Most golf courses
are not going to be disturbed one way or the other.
I am just going to mention some things
that are coming to the forefront, especially in the
light of some of the cranberry problems we have been
having recently. The information I am going to give
you is general and I hope it will be more or less of
a factual nature.
I think all of you are somewhat acquainted
with some of the problems that the U. S. Department
of Agriculture have had in connection with gypsum
moat work. You, probably, were at the Audubon, Society
meetings in connection with fireworks and other types
of things•
Now, to give us just a little bit of background information. I am going to just "throw out"
a few remarks here that may have come to your
attention or they may not have come to your attention.
I am trying to talk with some of your people if you
have some of these problems come up.
As a background of that, I might say that
I have been talking on the telephone a good many
years to a lot of people, a lot of different kinds
of people, and there have been a lot of times when
87

some emotions were involved and some strains,
and that type of thing.
It was only within the last year that
I have ever had anyone to hang the telephone up
on me and that was in connection with the use of
insecticides, in which a lady felt they might be
killing all the birds in the area. I don't think
there is any background for a lot of talk. She
thought I was trying to sell a proposition in
favor of the insecticide people. When I mentioned
the fact that there might have been some mitigating
circumstances there, she hung the telephone up.
She said, "I can see you are siding with the
insecticide people." And, that was that.
There are some people that have the
feeling, for example, when * a farmer out in Ohio,
Illinois, or even up in Washington or Frederick
County, might be spraying his crops to protect them
from pests, naturally, he puts a little insecticide
on the crop and on the soil« There are folks that
are thinking in terms that these insecticides will,
probably, reach from the soil, collect in little
branches of the rivers and what have you, and
eventually reach the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean
or some place like that and, probably, upset some
of our fish life. That is just the type of thing
that is being considered now by some folks and it
is something that we have got to think about. I
know these things haven't been proven yet. I am
just going to mention a few of them here.
I mentioned the question of gypsum moat
work. You recall as of last year, I believe it was
in 1958, that is the last year there were a group
of people cm Long Island. They brought suit against
the Secretary of Agriculture to prevent that work
on the basis that it was destroying the wild life.
88

Of course, they lost the case but there is a rather
interesting thing happening. We won°t say that some
of these insecticides will not kill wild life. When
improperly used, they probably will.
The point I want to make here is that there
are so many guards put up to prevent insecticides
from hurting a human or wild life or anything else
that when they are properly used, there is a very
small chance of anything happening.
Right at this time, I want to just show
you the controversial issues that come up. Just
following this law suit, I will say, there was a big
article in the New York Herald Tribune which said,
"Sportsmen Encouraged by Increase in Quail". That
is a matter of record in the paper. At the same time
there was a suit in the courts saying that insecticides eliminated the wild life in the area.
A lot of folks, probably, because insecticides have been used, infer that some of the losses
in wild life may have resulted from insecticides and
there is no proof in back of it.
I°d just like to read you a little story
that was in the newspaper. It says, "1958 Called
Disastrous Bird Year". That was the same year that
this other article appeared that there was an increase
in quail. Of course, there are other birds involved
here.
"Last year is termed a "year0 of disaster
of Eastern land birds. Ornithologists made the
assessment on the basis of a year long survey. They
cite reports of enormous losses of birds, especially
during migration last Spring and on counts conducted
during migrations southward last Fall. Hardest hit
were the Eastern bluebird, then the hermit thrush and
89

Eastern phoebe. A score of other species also
were hard hit." The report is contained in the
newly published Audubon Field Notes, sponsored
by the National Audubon Society.
These apparent reasons for the bird
mortality rate were listed %
1. The destruction of migrants over
the Gulf of Mexico during the storms in mid-April.
2. A quirk in wind direction that
caused an absence of tail winds to help the
migrants northward.
3. An insufficient food supply,
resulting from severe cold and snow, even in
southerly latitudes.
4. The poisoning of birds by
pesticides.
This suggestion came from New England,
from Long Island and other parts of New York
State. It didn't say that they caused it, but
they suggested it.
The U. S« Department of Agriculture of
Food and Drug Administration and most health people
now are giving it real thought, a lot of consideration, and are doing a lot of experimental work.
DDT is something that you, probably, have
to talk about when the question comes up. Just to
illustrate^ another problem I had a couple of years
ago was in one of the Maryland counties.
A young lady thought that DDT made her
sicko When the facts were all i n — a s a matter of
fact, we worked with the doctor and we gave him
samples of DDT to determine whether allergies of
that type of thing were involved. When the facts
90

came out, it was found that one property was
sprayed that was adjacent to her and the
insecticides that were used didn't even hit
on the premises of where she lived. Yet, she
believed it and she thought that DDT made her
sick. DDT has been said to be safe by some of
the medical people.
I would like to read here a little
note so that you might have it in mind.
DDT Safety Factor Established
"Present levels of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in the diet of American consumers
are not injurious to health, according to a research
report appearing in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
"The experiment was carried out with 51
men volunteers, one-third of whom received 3.5 mg.
per day, and the remaining group 35 mg. per day
(about 200 times the average daily rate of DDT in
the normal diet). During the course of the
experiments, 126 complete sets of examinations were
carried out on the men.
"The subjects were given complete physical
examinations, including weight, blood analysis,
heart rate, blood and pulse pressure, and plasma
cholinesterase level and all that type of thing."
And it said, "During the entire study, no
volunteer complained of any symptoms or showed, by
the tests used, any sign of illness that did not have
an easily recognized cause clearly unrelated to
exposure to DDT. The results indicate that a large
safety factor is associated with DDT as it now occurs
in the general diet."
91

You folks, probably, remember or read
something about the great controversy that has
been going on down in the South in connection
with the fire ant chemicals and the destruction
of wild life that might be associated with it.
There is a difference of opinion there, apparently.
People that are undertaking the work are feeling
that there is no great hazard, that there is no
great loss of wild life.
I think there have been some times when
accidental poisoning did occur. Those that are
using the material argue that the fire ant will
destroy more birds, particularly land birds, by
destroying the nests of the land birds, than any
of the insecticides that are being tased.
I have here a news note. It was published
in the Washington Post and Times Herald as well as
other papers.
Scientist Denies Peril in Fire Ant Chemicals
The reason I°d like to read that is it
comes from a U. S. Public Health Service.
" A U . S. Public Health Service scientist
said yesterday that chemicals used to exterminate the
fire ant are not a hazard to people in the affected
areas of the South.
"The scientist, Robert F. Witter, was
questioned about a charge made by Irston R. Barnes,
President of the Audubon Society of the District,
that the chemicals, dieldrin and heptachlor, pose a
threat to human health.
"Barnes made the charge in a letter to
Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, attacking
92

a Department film, °Fire Ant on Trial0®
"Witter, chief biochemist of the PHS8
Toxicology Section at Savannah, Georgia, said
the chemicals are not a danger even to the men
who apply them so long as standard precautions
are followed.
"The medical director of the section,
Dr. Wayland Hayes, has said previously that,
0
apart from the same qualification, Agriculture0s
planned program0 offers no hazard to the health
of anyone."
The article continues along the same
line.
Now, here in Maryland last Spring you
folks, probably, remember that there was some
discussion in the newspapers regarding the fact
that spraying for mosquitoes was, probably,causing
some fish killed down in the Chesapeake Bay and
some of the estuaries® I°d just like to read the
article involved.
Land Sprays Eyed As Key To Fish Kill
"Spraying projects on land may have
caused the death of thousands of fish in the
Chesapeake Bay, Tidewater Fisheries Commission
biologists report.
"They are looking into this possibility
in the effort to learn the cause of the destruction
of menhaden, perch, toadfish and some eel.
"Although we have no direct evidence
that mosquito control spraying is causing the fish
kill, said Edgar Hollis of the TFC, the fact that
93

both activities coincide gives us reason to look into
the relationship, if there is one.
"It is possible, Mr. Hollis said, that the
spraying could have resulted in the poisons being
washed into the waters by rain or carried along by
wind in the case of aerial application.
"The kill affected fish of little economic
value and was fatal to varieties no bigger than 12
inches. Rockfish and crabs were not harmed. In fact
they benefited as they foraged on the smaller fish.
"Biologists also are checking several other
factors which may have caused the fish destruction.
Some of the deaths were due to a fungus infection."
You folks know that there are just a
couple of things wrong with that. In the first place
DDT had not been used in any of the areas where the
fish were dying. The mosquito control operations had
just started, and started after the fish began to die
More important than that, I might say, we
collected both fish—that was later—-both fish and
water and had them analyzed and they did not show
the presence of chemicals. But, as a background of
that, I would like to say this, those of us who lived
along the Bay know it and, as long as I can remember,
there have been times and there have been occasions
when these rockfish and other fish have died. You
could see them almost by the billions and just about
as far as you can see. At times you can see dead
fish lying there and they will be so thick that you
can hardly put your finger down.
We had a situation similar to that. We
haven't tried to deny the controversies. But we do
have and did collect fish and water and have them
94

analyzed.
I am taking too much time here, but 10 d
like to mention one other item here that might be
of interest. Some of you who are interested in
birds will know something about the great controversy that existed between the Audubon Society and
some of the other people that are using insecticides.
I am not going to comment on the merits.
There was a man by the name of Wallace
who did some work up in Michigan, who found through
his researches or felt that certain insecticides
used to control the Dutch elm disease was dissipating
the robin population in the area. As I say, that has
been a controversial issue.
Recently, Mr. J. A. Dietrich, who is a
well-known tree specialist up in Connecticut, tended
to deny that. I told you that Mr. Wallace felt the
sprays were dissipating the robin population.
I'd just like to read an article that
appeared in the Detroit Free Press answering—well,
quoting Dietrich in attempting to answer Wallace.
It says ?
"A leading tree specialist doesn't think
so.
"J. A. Dietrich, who addressed the National
Shade Tree Conference Tuesday at the Statler-Hilton
Hotel, told delegates that most antispray arguments
are based on misconceptions.
"Misinformed sources have scared many
reliable city officials who are charged with responsibilities of insect control. The general public is
geared to a state of hysteria.
95

"Dietrich, Park Superintendent of
Greenwich, Connecticut, reopened the antispray
argument begun in 1958 by Dr. George A. Wallace,
Professor of Zoology at Michigan State.
"Wallace has charged that the DDT spray
which kills beetles carrying the Dutch elm blight
also is killing off the robin.
"Dietrich said Wallace's statements
were 'dramatic and exciting8, but somewhat "emotional8
"A pioneer in Dutch elm disease control,
Dietrich, 52, listed the following points to counter
unfavorable publicity resulting from the wide use of
DDT :
"1. Agricultural chemicals are regulated
by Federal and State laws which guard against
possible hazards to wild life.
"2. In answer to charges by an Illinois
conservationist that DDT had destroyed the bird
population of Batavia, Illinois, a special bird
census was taken. It showed that there had been
little or no damage.
"3. Thirteen years of spraying in
Greenwich has not produced some of the dramatic
catastrophes portrayed by some critics. Birds still
migrate, fish still populate the streams, wild life
is active.
"Despite such evidence, reliable and
thoroughly tested chemicals which have performed a
remarkable job in the interest of mankind are being
shunned as the result of this unwarranted, needless
and contradictory propaganda."
In that same connection this is in regard
to the cranberry situation that has come up. I think
96

we are going to assay some of our thinking regarding
some of the toxic materials that are in some of our
good foods. When we get into these problems—all
pest insecticides are toxic and we might consider
them as such. But, if we will read the labels and
follow the instructions provided by the Department
of Agriculture and by the Pure Food and Health
people, generally speaking, we would be at all times
on safe grounds as far as their use is concerned.
There have been some people that have
lost their lives from the misuse of certain
insecticides but I don't think there is anyone that
has ever been hurt when it was used correctly,
following an application—the use or application, so
to speak, of an insecticide.
I might say that I think it is true that
some of our good foods; for example, you can probably
kill more birds—not birds, but chickens with sodium
chloride than you can with DDT.
Along that same line there just appeared
in the paper the other day a remark or an editorial
in one of the medical journals, and the headline as
it came out in the paper said, "Cranberry Ban Rapped".
I will now read it all.
"The Government's recent action against
sellers of cranberries, chickens and products
colored with charcoal was criticized today by the
editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association as causing undue alarm among the American people.
"In an editorial in the Journal, Dr. John
H. Talbott made this comment on aminotriazole, the
cancer causing herbicide that prompted the Government
to halt the sale of cranberries shortly before
Thanksgiving."
97

I am reading this, probably, because some
of you people have been opposed to it. This is what
he says §
"If turnips and cabbage were included among
the vegetables served or mustard was used as a condiment, minute quantities of aminotriazole might have
been ingested by the Pilgrims more than 300 years ago.
"The United States Agriculture Department,^
after analyses begun in 1956, pronounced the compound
suitable for use on cranberries, yet 18 months later
the implication that the chemical could cause cancer
prompted another Government department to ban the
sale of cranberries.
"Little stress was placed on the well
documented evidence that aminotriazole occurs
naturally in vegetables, notably cabbage, turnips and
broccoli, as well as in mustard or that in which the
antithyroid action is described in current textbooks
of therapy.
"Carbon black was recorded in the Federal
Registry, December 9, 1958, as a permissible food
adulterant but omitted a year latere"
He added, "A fortnight after this action
a supplementary document by the Food and Drug
Administration permitted the processors and the users
of charcoal in food and candies a three month period
of grace to produce evidence that burned toast is
harmless."
I just read that because it is just another
factor and a controversy that is going around.
Now, you know a lot of this business. In
making these statements, I am not trying to discuss
98

the pros and cons. I have got to look at this
business fairly. I think as some emotional
situations arise, I feel that anything that
might contaminate or injure foods should not be
premitted—and your wild life, as far as that is
concerned.
As a matter of fact, I am sure that the
gunners are doing more damage in crippling and
injuring the birds than some of the pesticides
that we are using.
A rumor—these things that are put in
the papers—a rumor is something we need to
consider.
I am just going to read you something
here so that I hope this will better enable you to
talk with any of the people in case some of these
problems come up.
"A rumor is a specific proposition for
belief, passed along from person to person, usually
by word of mouth, without secure standards of evidence
being presented. Various personality factors enter
into a rumor."
Mrs. Adams to Mrs. Becks
Is she ill?

Where is Mrs. King

Mrs. Beck to Mrs 0 Clarks
if Mrs. King may not be ill.

Mrs. Adams wonders

today?

Mrs. Clark (who does not like Mrs. King)
to Mrs. Davis (who does)s I hear Mrs. King is ill.
Not seriously, I hope.
Mrs. Davis to Mrs. Elliss Mrs. Clark is
saying that Mrs. King is seriously sick. I must go
99

right over and see her.
Mrs. Ellis to Mrs. French: I guess
Mrs. King is pretty sick. Mrs. Davis has just
been called over.
Mrs. French to Mrs• Gregg 2 They say
that Mrs. King isn't expected to live. The
relatives have been called to her bedside.
Mrs. Gregg to Mrs. Hudson: What's the
latest news about Mrs. King? Is she dead?
Mrs. Hudson to Mrs. Ingham:
did Mrs. King die?

What time

Mrs. Ingham to Mrs. Joness Are you
going to Mrs. King's funeral? I hear she died
yesterday.
Mrs. Jones to Mrs. Kings I just learned
of your death and funeral. Now, who started that?
Mrs. King s There are several who would
be glad if it were true.
I just read that because you see how these
things accumulated as they passed from word of mouth
Now, I am going to read this. This comes
from a gypsy moth area where there is a lot of spray
ing going on. It says, "From a Berkshire Garden".
It was a lady who, apparently, was backing all the
antispray work at one time.
"We don't know how other sections have
fared during the past few weeks but the gypsy moth
has descended upon our part of Cornwall in a dark
tapestry of destruction.
100

"They hang from the trees like bead curtains,
pattern the buildings, get in the hair, on the person.
They have almost defoliated our flowering quinces,
flowering crabs, roses and are now working their way
through the maples. They have even moved into the
house and are on the ceilings, walls, in the bedding
and on the food. The other morning we found one on
the living room table, thumb to nose, getting a good
laugh out of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment
Station's "Control of the Gypsy Moth 0 ."
I am not criticizing the Station°s spraying either. I don°t think the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station had a thing to do with it.
"Heretofore we have been firmly antispray
and have given tongue to the same patter as all the
rest of the antispray faction; the gypsy moth is on
the wane; natural predators are getting them under
control; they are no longer a threat and most of the
spraying has been unnecessary anyhow.
"Well, we have come down out of that ivory
tower fast. In this, as in most other matters, it
makes a lot of difference whose arm is being twisted,
whose garden is being defoliated.
"And, ironically enough, this current
invasion has presumably come from a part of our own
woodland which, last year, was pronounced an incipient
danger point. Did we want to spray? No. We did not
believe in sprays. Besides, the peak year was over
and natural predators, et cetera, ad nauseam.
"Right now the most beautiful sound in
world is the drone of the helicopter as it works
and forth over adjacent woodland. We can°t wait
it to get overhead and give us our money°s worth
purification."
101

the
back
for
of

With those few remarks, I hope you folks
will take them in the light that I hope I presented
them—two sides of a somewhat controversial issue,
and as something that might enable you to talk with
your people in a somewhat factual manner without
emotion and try to give them both sides of a
controversial problem.
We don't feel that pesticides, if used
properly, create any great danger. Particularly
that is true if you read the label and follow those
directions.

MR. Lo Ro SHIELDS, Woodmont Country Club,
Rockville, Maryland s
We have been concerned with the problem
of gnats or blackflies for some time and have
learned something about them through Dr. Langford
and Charlie McComb at the University by observing
and reading the literature available.
We have always known that they are very
annoying when they fly into the eyes, ears, nose
and mouth, so we set out to see if we couldn't do
something about stopping them from doing it. They
don't taste good.
First, we used our hydraulic sprayer and
sprayed trees and shrubs with DDT or chlordane, but
with little success.
I discussed the problem with Dr. Langford
at one of the Baltimore meetings and he sent Charlie
McComb, one of his entomology students out to the
Club to do some research. Charlie waded into the
stream and showed me how they lay their eggs on
sticks and rocks projecting into the water. Then,
102

as the larvae hatch, they cling to objects near
the water until their wings dry; then fly away.
We actually found tiny worms under water
that were about one-eighth of an inch long and
about as thick as a hair. To kill these before
they hatched, we rigged bottles of chlordane so
that when turned upside down drops of the chemical
would slowly fall into the water and be taken on
downstream.
Results were when we tried to find larvae
in that stream later, we couldn8t but then we had
no check so we don°t know if we killed them or
they hatched out and flew away.
If you care to try this method, do it
early in the season, March or April, and don't use
excessive amounts or you will kill your fish, if
you have any.<
Charlie worked on this project more than
I did, and perhaps he should be making this talk
instead of me. I°m sure he is more familiar with
the subject. He made regular visits to the Club
that Summer every week or so to spray or fog the
area and to check results.
The chemicals he used were Benzene
Hexachlorida or DDT, or a mixture of the two, and
a special kind of oil to create the smoke or fog.
We sprayed at different times on many days, but
finally concluded that the best time was in the late
afternoon, just before or just after dark. There was
less wind at that time and the chemical stayed in one
place longer, giving a better kill. The smoke sometimes stayed for hours, especially if there was no
wind.

103

We checked results by catching gnats and
placing them in net boxes at different spots around
the course. We got complete kill in these boxes,
even though some were placed 600 yards down wind
from the path of the sprayer.
The next day or two, after each spraying,
we were not bothered by gnats. So, from then on, we
covered the area on Thursday or Friday nights in an
effort to please the greatest number of players over
each week end. We couldn't understand why the
results didn't last longer, why gnats came back so
soon, but Charlie finally came up with the logical
explanation.
In his travels, he found that the Potomac
River to the west of us was the breeding ground for
great clouds of these troublesome insects and that
each time we made a kill, the prevailing winds
would bring us in a new batch.
He learned that Montgomery County, Maryland
State, and the Federal Government were all well aware
of this situation, but none would take the responsibility for adding chemical to the river, and we can't
blame them, because it is the source of supply of
drinking water for the District of Columbia and most
of the surrounding area. After explaining this to
the Club officials, they said, "Let us spray", and
that's just what we have been doing.
We purchased a John Beane Model 50 Roto
Mist blower. We selected this particular model
because it works in conjunction with our present
regular greens sprayer, and saved the cost of another
pump and tank. We rigged the blower on our one and
a half ton truck and fixed a trailer hitch on behind
for the sprayer.

104

The chemical is pumped through the hose
up to the blower and is blown out by the big fan.
Kerosene is used to create smoke which acts as a
carrier.
We used two gallons of 50 percent
Malathion to 150 gallons of water every Friday
night and got good control over Saturday and
Sunday.
It also kills flies, mosquitoes and
Japanese bettles® We circle the property once,
then crisscross until we run out of material. We
don't try to cover everything but, instead, try
to put up a cloud of vapor that will drift and
come in contact with the insects.
This has worked out fairly well for
us as a temporary control for week end play, free
of gnats.
Charlie°s discovery that blackflies were
killed 600 yards away has added to the golfing
pleasure of Woodmont members and they are most
grateful to him and to the University®
MR® REYNOLDSs I was wondering how windy
a day you can do this on®
Do you need a certain amount of wind?
MR® SHIELDS s We found it was better if
you didn°t have any wind or any wind noticeable.
If it were very windy, we didn°t do it because we
felt we'd lose the material as it would be blown
away. By doing it late in the afternoon, when the
wind died down, we got better results.
AUDIENCE s Did you determine how far they
105

were being blown from the breeding grounds?
MR. SHIELDS : They found them over in
Ellis Park, ten miles from the Potomac, which we
assume isn't the breeding ground.
AUDIENCE § Can that attachment be used
with an older type, five or six year old tank
sprayer?
MR. SHIELDS: Yes, sir. Any sprayer that
might have a hose outlet can be used on this
particular blower. It has a hose connection at
the end of the pipe that feeds up into the blower.
AUDIENCE: Did you find that Malathion
took out your cells on your sprayer, your pump?
MR. SHIELDS:
AUDIENCE:
with your sprayer?

No.

You didn't have any bad results

MR. SHIELDS: No, I blamed it on the age
of the sprayer. It was ten years old. I had to do
it anyway. That is regular routine maintenance.
AUDIENCE: After you put them in, you
sprayed once a week?
MR. SHIELDS: Once a week and I haven't
had any trouble with the newest sprayer that is about
three or four years old. The older one was ten years
old and I didn't have trouble with it.
AUDIENCE: I'd like to know about the love
life of the tsetse fly. How about the life cycle of
this particular insect mating three or four times a
season?
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DRo LANGFORDs There are several broods.
It is the blackfly that we are concerned with.
They breed in swift running water. Generally
speaking, there are many species of the blackfly.
They have the biting fly through the New England
area. We are fortunate in that this particular
fly we have does not bite or seldom bites. Very
few people are troubled with the bite.
There are several broods through the
Summer, those that attack the fodder and the crops
and the flies that come up off the river we have
concern with.
I'd like to ask you, Bob, do you think
you have had good worthwhile results from your
operation?
MR« SHIELDS s

I feel that we did, yes.

MRo GEORGE C. GUMM, Ocean City Golf and
Yacht Club, Berlin, Maryland:
We opened our new golf course officially
on June 27th, after dry weather for two months. In
the first two weeks of July there was, approximately,
14 inches of rainfall. In a short time mosquitoes
appeared and the heavy rains produced numerous ideal
breeding areas.
An aeroplane was used to spray an insecticide on and around the course with good results. The
cost of $165.00 per application was too great to
continue the needed weekly sprays.
Ocean City loaned us a sprayer which we
used 55 times to spray a solution having a twelve to
one ratio of B.H.C. and Malathion. Our costs for
3L07

sprayer repairs, materials and labor were $2,873.93.
The frequency of spraying depended on
weather conditions—daily application being necessary
on wet humid days. Golfers were enthusiastic about
the spraying which we endeavored to do in the morning prior to play or as the early golfers were
starting.
The source of the mosquitoes was from nearby
marshes where there was an accumulation of standing
water. These nearby areas were ditched by C. C.
nearly 25 years ago, and late this Summer and Fall
they were reopened by the Department of Entomology,
State of Maryland.
The State's budget being $213,000.00 their
expenditures being in counties matching State funds.
The State supervised work included ditching, spraying and guidance to communities who supplemented
the State1s program. The reason for ditching being
to allow the tidewater to move.
It is known salt marsh mosquitoes breed
following a high tide. The adults lay their eggs
in mud and if the marsh dries out the eggs continue
to lie in the dry mud.
When there is a moon tide or weather
conditions produce ^n unusual high tide the marsh
is flooded. In about five days there is a flood of
young mosquitoes« The movement of tidewater through
the ditches takes off any sheet water rapidly which
removes one of the ideal breeding areas.
Control of mosquito includes ditching for
improved drainage, spraying and informing the local
people what is important for them to do and what
the State and local governing bodies are doing.
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We believe with the concerted action and
our spraying, the golfers will experience satisfactory playing conditions.

BERMUDA GRASSES
MR. Eo RAY JENSIN, Southern Turf Nursery,
Tifton, Georgia %
As interest increased in better Bermuda
grass for turf purposes down in the deep South, a
few basic facts were discovered, and there are vast
variations in Bermuda grasses.
Fertilizers are important, especially
nitrogen fertilizers as they affect the performance
of Bermuda grass.
It was learned that quality turf was
susceptible to and suffered damage from various
insects and diseases.
It was learned that some Bermuda grass
had superior turf characteristics and produced much
higher quality turf than others.
With knowledge in these three fields,
research workers succeeded in getting Bermuda grasses
from the pastures and onto the golf courses.
By using 100 pounds of actual nitrogen per
acre per year on Bermuda grass fairways and 500
pounds per acre of actual nitrogen on greens, it was
found is practical to improve their sod density, color
characteristics, and weed resistance.
Some golf courses are now using up to four
pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per
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month on greens—this is during the growing season—
and some are using up t o — 5 0 pounds of actual nitrogen
per acre per month on fairways.
Where Winter grasses are used on fairways,
the rate of nitrogen is often reduced on the fairways
to create a more open type sod. often no fertilizer
is applied after July so as to allow an opening of
the turf by Fall.
The applications on the greens, of course,
remain the same through the growing season since they
are top-dressed with fresh soil.
Control of sod-web worms and Army worms in
the middle and late months of the Summer is very
important.
The differences in Bermuda grasses are
vast. There are Bermuda grasses with leaves as large
as St. Augustine grass and some with leaves nearly as
fine as Mascarene grass.
Plots side by side will often show considerable
variationo One will be completely covered with disease
while another will be scarcely affected. Some will
tolerate concentrated herbicides, some close mowing,
and some heavy traffic, while others will not.
There is a new grass anticipated for release
by the Georgia Coastal Plan Experiment Station and
the Uo So Department of Agriculture, and which may be
of interest in this area. It is named Tifway and is
used for fairways« Prior to being named it was referred
to as Tifton 419.
Tifway is a chance hybrid between cynodon
transvaalensis (African Bermuda) and cynodon Dactylon
(common Bermuda). It appeared in a lot of seed
110

supplied Dr. Glenn Burton by a Dr. Meredith of
South Africa in the Spring of 1954. This grass
has shown excellent turf characteristics as a
fairway grass. I observed it at least once a month
for the past two years.
Its color characteristics are very
superior. Its texture, disease and weed resistance
is definitely good. Whether or not it may loosen up
enough in the Fall with light Summer fertilization to
allow poa annua to come through or easy for rye grass
overseeding, I do not know. Those results, more than
likely, will have to be determined by studies in a
particular area.
There is a need for varieties with more
cold tolerance, frost resistance, and with a fairly
open type sod that will allow Winter color from either
poa annua or overseeding.
Slides were used showing the effect of
frost and cold on different strains of Bermuda, how
superior the quality of turf of Tifgreen and Tifway
were to common Bermuda.
Also showed effect of correct soil sterilization prior to planting greens and quickness of
coverage—for instance, a green planted in late June
and producing a good putting surface in six weeks.
A fairway planted on August 20th to Ormond Bermuda
being in good playing condition the first week in
October.
Pictures emphasized the importance of correct
grading when renovating fairways. This was done with
a York rake and drag.
A series of pictures illustrated greens
soil preparation, fumigating with methyl bromide,
111

broadcasting stolons at the rate of ten bushels
per 1,000 square feet, top-dressing and watering.
The use of machinery when planting
Bermuda in fairways was illustrated. These
included a straight disk planter and using 150 to
200 bushels per acre.
Pictures showed the importance of prompt
watering following planting and continuous daily
watering until grass was rooted in comparison
with infrequent watering.

THE INTRODUCTION OF BERMUDA GRASSES
IN EXISTING FAIRWAYS
The Moderator for this panel will bes
MR. JAMES Eo THOMAS, Army-Navy Country
Club, Arlington, Virginia.
MR. JAMES Eo THOMAS s Thank you. I
think you already heard the topic mentioned as
to "The Introduction of Bermuda Grasses in
Existing Fairways".
I would like to introduce the panels
MR. EBERHARDT R. STEINIGER,
Pine Valley Golf Club,
Clementon, New Jersey.
MR. L. R. SHIELDS,
Woodmont Country Club,
Rockville, Maryland

112

MR. TOM DOERER, JR.,
Fort Belvoir Golf Club,
Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
MRo FRANK P. DUNLAP,
Baltimore Country Club
Baltimore, Maryland.
These gentlemen are all going to tell you
about their experiences in introducing Bermuda in
the existing fairways. I am going to let them give
you their case histories.
I have an outline on some things that I
think are necessary if we are going to have an
establishment of a satisfactory sod of Bermuda
grass.
One of the conditions that is favorable
for a good standard of Bermuda grasses is full
sunlight, preferably, around the clock. I can
walk on my own course at this time of the year,
when the leaves are off the trees, and I can
definitely show you where our Bermuda stops because
it is beginning to have competition from shade.
Bermuda is much like crabgrass and it
won't tolerate shade. If you have excessive
shade you are not going to have Bermuda. So,
that will bring up the question as to the area
suitable for the establishment of Bermuda. A
southern exposure is highly advantageous to it.
You will have better success wherever Bermuda is
planted in this area and well exposed to the south.
Drainage, as in all cases, must be
adequate. In making a selection of grasses, we must
be sure that we have a suitable strain; one that is
desirable. It must have the qualities for density,
113

texture and appearance.
At this time I am going to ask Eb to tell
us one of his experiences.
MR. EBERHARDT R. STEINXGERs
Slide. This is a picture of Pine Valley,
just to show you where we are located* It is a little
hilly country with valleys and hills. It is so
different from the rest of Southern New Jersey,
which is flat. You see, we have quite a forest
around there. That, of course, means we have a lot
of shady areas.
Next slide. This is also taken about—
over ten years ago, when we first started to introduce
Bermuda. You can see it in the center and it is
starting to creep now.
Next slide* Now, this will show you the
kind of stuff that will grow down in our place.
Along in the roughs and in the woods, and along our
fairways, Wild Hawthorn and heather. This is a
cactus. It has a pretty flower when it is in bloom,
but it is the damnedest1'thing*
Next slide* We haven't been able to raise
grass on the slope, although the right side is
perfectly surfaced. The left-hand side has given us
some trouble. We had Bermuda all the way up to the
woods and we have been using some Zoysia. We have
some Zoysia in there. As a matter of fact, I think
the Zoysia will take over this area by-and-by. It
shows that Bermuda is just going to grow where it
likes to grow. There is nothing you can do about it.
Next slide* This is the Zoysia fairway.
It is being aerified and mowed. It is about 60 or
114

67 percent Zoysia in this fairway.
good turf.

It is a pretty

Next slide. This is a nice machine to
open the grass. We use it once or twice a year,
especially before a tournament. These are vertical
cuts and it has blowers on it to pick up the clippings and it really makes a fine job.
Next slide. This is a fairway model.
You really can thin out your Bermuda. After that,
we let it dry out and use our blower on it, and use
the fairway sweeper on it and sweep the fairway
clippings. After it is mowed, you wouldn't even
think you were on it.
Next slide. We have one of those small
machines. It shows how much stuff this thing will
take out. I just want to show you what a little
machine will do on a tee.
Next slide. We are still earring out,
with something new coming up. These are plots
coming up this year. I haven't got that much to
say about this.
We had a late tournament. We had the
International Senior Championship in the middle of
November. I thought we ought to throw a little dye
on there to show the Englishmen and Canadians the
different colors. It didn't make any difference.
Next slide.

Here is another dye.

Next slide. This is another, our greatest.
The third hole. This, also, is taken from the tee.
Next slide. Well, this is a close-up. I
just wanted to tell you in case someone wondered why
115

we had sprinklers in the traps.
Even in the middle of the Summer we have
to keep the traps cool or we won't be able to raise
any grass on the green. The heat is so terrific we
have to cool the traps off. It is an interesting
job. That is why I have been there 33 years.
MR. THOMAS s Next is Bob Shields,
Woodmont Country Club, Rockville, Maryland.
MR« Lo Ro SHIELDS z In those pictures of
Eb's all he showed you fellows was what I had in
mind? what I am trying to get. I'd like to have
some of that thatch that Jim Thomas was talking
about this morning.
I am going to speak on The Introduction
of Bermuda Grasses in Existing Fairways.
There are many ways of introducing Bermuda
grass into existing fairways, and I think we have tried
them all at Woodmont in an effort to find a way that
would meet the following standards of criterion 5
Fasto We put speed first because we didn't
want the job to drag on all Summer, interfering with
other routine work.
Easy. We knew it had to be simple and easy
or we wouldn't get it done.
Inexpensive. I've heard it said that
Woodmont has all the money. That is definitely not
true. We must watch our pennies and dollars the same
as you to see that we get the best possible return
for each dollar spent.
With little interference with play.
116

A player

will go along with interference if he knows it will
result in a better golf course next year, but sometimes it might take a year to get across to him the
information on what we are trying to do. We chose
not to interfere so we wouldn't have to explain,
unless he asked.
Finally, we had to be assured that we
would get a good percentage of "take" so our labors
wouldn't be for naught.
To meet these requirements we checked
over the different methods of planting, such as
plugging, hand-sprigging, strip sodding, plowing
and disking. All were either too slow, too
expensive or there was too much interference with
play.
One of the first big problems we ran into
every time we wanted to plant Bermuda was the harvesting of planting material, whether sprigs, stolons or
or sodo As you know, the grass is rather stiff and
wiry with stolons close to the ground and hard to get
at to cut.
We tried rakes, hoes, pulling by hand;
then later the West Point Verti-cut and they all worked
pretty good but not good enough for large scale fairway work because they were too slow and expensive.
The problem of harvesting was overcome
when a former Mid-Atlantic member, Jim Roach, an
Aero-Thatch salesman out of Rahway, New Jersey,
demonstrated his machine on a tee. I knew the
Bermuda harvesting problem was solved.
It filled every requirement—fast, easy,
inexpensive (after the machine was paid for) and
with no player interference. It even made possible
117

the use of our regular tees as nurseries®
Thanks to Burning Tree and Columbia, we
were able to buy the machine immediately® They had
purchased some bent grass stolons from us, so we had
the money to buy the machine without having to go
to the club officials. We put it to work at once
and planted about four acres more of nursery with
material from tees, using the broadcast method, to
make sure we would have ample stolons when and if
the club decided to put Bermuda in fairways.
The decision came about a year ago but
we still didn't know how we were going to do the
actual planting. We had spent all the money in
our little fund and couldn't buy a planting machine.
So, we made our own from scrap iron, a used subsoiler
blade and a couple of colter wheels from the plow.
It works on the three point hitch behind
the Ford tractor and is very simple. One colter
wheel makes a cut in the sod, and the subsoiler
blade runs in that slit, making it wider (about
three-quarters of an inch) and deeper®
A man rides on the planter and drops
the stolons down through a piece of stovepipe and
they fall on the slit. The second colter wheel
follows behind in the cut, pressing the sprigs down
into the ground® The cut is closed by the tractor
wheels the next time across® Then we start the
sprinklers.
Not counting watering time, which I
reasoned we would have to do anyway, the operation
required three men? one driving the tractor, one on
the planting machine and one harvesting and delivering the stolons in bags or baskets from the nursery.

118

We planted across the fairway in cuts
about a foot apart and dropped sprigs about every
foot so that we had plants on one foot centers.
This spacing could be changed by regulating the
speed of the tractor, but I thought the foot
spacing would be about right. We stopped planting
about ten feet from the green.
The amount of material used was,
approximately, 50 bushels per acre or a total of
1,500 bushels for the 30 acres of fairway. The
entire project was accomplished in the month of
June and required a total of 450 man-hours at a
cost of $592o43o Add to that the cost of the
planting machine, which was $67.45, to get the
total cost, but keep in mind this does not include
watering, which was a big item.
Results were far from spectacular due,
mostly, to the fact that June was a very dry month.
The first dozen strips got rain the day after
planting and were way ahead of the rest, which
didn't get any rain for a month.
This Winter, now that the crabgrass is
dead, the Bermuda shows up a lot better and I
believe we have a pretty good stand. The end of
this coming year will tell the tale, but I'll,
continue to plant any area that looks like ±t
might have died out.
Our future plans call for the development
of another planter. So, we can plant our other two
nines even faster this coming Spring by running two
machines. On our fourth nine now under construction,
we intend to plant U-3 Bermuda on all fairways by
using the broadcast method. This will be done in
June or July, and I believe we can have playable
fairways by the end of the Summer.
119

I don't know anything about 328 Bermuda.
I think it is to my advantage to concentrate on
U-3 since we have six acres, approximately, rather
than to establish the new Bermuda and wait for it
to come up.
MR. THOMASs
most interesting.

Thank you, Bob.

That was

MRo TOM DOERER, JR.s I didn't hear much
mention about soil. We have at Fort Belvoir,
unfortunately, compacted soil of a clay nature with
a lot of gravel.
I will speak on Tifgreen Bermuda. I
tried it at Fort Belvoir on some very, very difficult
places, which was entirely as hard as that floor,
where a disk wouldn't penetrate the floor ground.
I used Tifgreen clippings and scattered it around.
After four weeks I had a little bit of grass showing.
I find this Fall it has covered quite an area.
I also found rock underneath the sod. I
imagine any Bermuda grass builds up its own soil.
I found in the clay silt which we have there that I
got complete coverage on a 50 by 100 foot lot in
jsix weeks and very dense. We cut that to a height
of three-quarters of an inch.
Tifgreen has a dense texture and holds the
ball up on the fairway very well, but the appearance
of hitting the shots off of this type of grass in the
Fall or early Spring is more of a psychological thing
than anything else. To change the psychological
effect—I think it would be an educational program
in this area to educate golfers that you still have
a good playing surface without green color.
In closing, Bermuda grass is the coming
120

grass in this area.

My favorite is Tifgreen.

Slide. There is a spreading machine we
use at Fort Belvoir to spread the surface. We
purchased it for about $600.00. It does a very
good job. It is very similar to the one that
Bob Shields presented before us. This is one we
got out of St. Louis.
We did three acres in six hours, just
two men, and you can see the hopper on the left.
That is where our stolons come down through there
and drop into the chute and the slit is made by the
knife in front. You have the disk in the middle
and in the back you have the roller to compress it.
So, you don't know you are going across the fairways.
AUDIENCE s What was the distance between
the rows?
MR. DOERER s They were put in 15 inches
in the center. The rows were 15 inches wide and
stolons were 15 inches apart.
Slide. That shows the mechanical
operation of the machine.
MR. FRANK P. DUNLAP: Some of you may
suspect that I have been rattling around in this
racket for 40 years, and in those years I have seen
fairway renovation programs, and fairway planning
programs. I guess I have seen everything that can
be done and have done most of it myself.
I did a complete renovation at the
Country Club and, in my own case invariably and
everyone else's, within a year to five years at the
most, we were right back where we started from. We
had poa annua, chickweed, clover and dead grass in
121

the summertime and it was just a losing fight and
an expensive one.
When I came to the Baltimore Country Club
we had a patch of U-3 on the hill in front of the
15th green that Bob Scott put in there. It was a
beautiful covering of grass in a place that I was
given to understand had never had turf on it.
Now, this U-3 was not maintained to its
best advantage, due to the fact that it was a small
area and the rest of the fairways being Bluegrass,
it was always cut at a higher level than U-3 should
be cut« Nevertheless, it was the finest piece of
turf that we had on the course in the Summer and
early Fall.
So, I began talking U-3 Bermuda and we
discussed the subject back and forth for a couple
of years, and finally the committee and myself
got the committee to say, "Well, let's go for the
program."
The first thing I did was to talk to
Eb Steiniger. I thought he had, probably, as much
experience as anyone to decide which method we
would use. After talking to Eb, it was his opinion
and mine that the use of plugs was the surest and
the cheapest plan, without losing the turf when you
put it in.
This Summer we hired four colored boys
from Manpower, Inc. I put one of my men with them
to supervise the job. We put in 170,000 plugs in
the fairways at five different times« The ones that
went in in May have increased in some instances as
much as ten inches of solid turf and in some cases
20 and 25 inches of runners beyond that solid turf.
This job took us from May to November«
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I have about two and a half or, probably,
three acres yet to do. I am doing 100 plugs a
month each month through the Winter, just for my
own information, to see whether Winter plugging is
satisfactory and whether those plugs will come
through.
I think that all of us going into this
program, when we get solid coverage of all our
fairways, are going to have a lot to learn about
the maintenance of this thing.
Some of the things that Eb brought out,
unquestionably, have to be done—the close cut,
verti-cutting and flexicombs will aid in removing
mat. I think that more courses are going to make
some drastic changes in their fairway mowers in
order to do an adequate job on this grass.
In an adequate fertilizer program,
probably, high nitrogen is necessary. I was very
interested in Eb°s remarks about the potash, and
certainly he, apparently, has a point and is
arriving somewhere at the elimination of Winter
kill.
Just what the point of nitrogen i s — w e
know the U-3 Bermuda will use practically all of
it that you can give it, but how much it ought to
have is something that I think is still to be
worked out in the future.
The important thing about U—3 Bermuda is
good playing turf at that time of the year when
golfers are playing.

123

PROBLEMS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 1959
ON THE GOLF COURSE
MR. CHARLES K. HALLQWELL, Mid-Atlantic
Director, Green Section, United States Golf
Association, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 2
Golf Course Construction
Twenty-four new golf courses are being
constructed in Pennsylvania at the present time.
While eight new courses were opened during the
past year in Pennsylvania and seven in Virginia,
Virginia now has eleven courses under construction
which rates them ninth in the United States.
Research
Turfgrass research was active at three
centers, namely2
Beltsville, United States Department of
Agriculture under the direction of Dr. Juska.
Pennsylvania State University, Experimental
Station with turfgrass plots being relocated under
the direction of Dr. Joseph Duich.
Virginia, at Virginia Agriculture Experiment
Station at Blacksburg, Virginia, being directed by
Dr. Blaser and Richard Schmidt.
Seed Situation
Seed supplies are plentiful with two
exceptions, Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall oats grasses
(Alta and Kentucky 31 fescue). The 1959 yield being
15 to 20 percent less than the 1958. Nine million
plus pounds of Kentucky Blue season is the reported
124

total for 1959.
pounds in 1958.

This is in comparison to 64,000,000

Bent grass slightly higher yields and both
chewings and red fescue and common rye and red-top a
definite increase. The 1959 crop of Merion bluegrass
was the largest produced, being 2,721,000 pounds.
General Maintenance
Weather again featured the maintenance
program in 1959. It is weather and wear that golf
course superintendents are continually planning to
meet and to keep ahead of. It is weather and wear
that causes them to attend a conference such as this
and conference on both national and local levels.
Superintendents go to meetings and compare
notes and discuss their problems, most of which are
due to the effects of weather and the wear on the
grasses resulting from players, machinery and other
causes.
Weather Extremes
The cold Winter of 1958-1959 brought many
problems, especially in areas where it was usual to
have snow and there was nothing but continued cold
weather. Ground was frozen for more than three
months and winds dried out the grass. It was most
difficult to revive the grass, some seeding had to
be done, nurseries were put into use and the grass
that was brought back slowly during the season was
then hit with hot, humid weather plus disease in midJuly.
Rainfall Variations
For instance, after a very dry May and
125

June with 59 consecutive nights of watering, the 14
days in July—Atlantic City reported 14 inches of
rainfall. Ocean City, Maryland had an extremely
dry Spring and early Summer showing a total rainfall
from April to late October to be 26 inches with more
than half of it in the month of July (10 inches falling in the week of the 13th of July) and none during
September. There were other areas reporting four to
five inches of rainfall in 24 hour periods and seven
inches during one week. The rain was usually
accompanied by high temperatures and considerable
humidity. All three being detrimental to proper
growth of grass.
Soil
Soils suffered from heavy rainfall in the
Summer plus wear on them when they were wet. Again,
it was obvious that lack of adequate drainage
intensified the problem. This was noticeable on
greens, approaches and low fairways. Poor soil
compositions being another factor that intensified
problems, as soon as surface dried compaction became
severe. Greens having a good mixture of sand, soil
and peat properly drained underneath and on surface
came through the unfavorable weather in a satisfactory
condition..
GRASSES
Greens
The improved strains of creeping bent
thrived well. These include Arlington, Congressionalmostly these are mixed—Cohansey—occasionally Old
Orchard -all these being propagated by stolons. The
new Pencross seeded greens showed a good advantage.
Bermuda shows various methods of propagation
126

Fairways
Improved strains of cool season fairway
grasses are limited. The only one being Merion
bluegrass which is showing to a good advantage on
occasional courses.
Merion bluegrass germinates slowly and
its early development is also slow, once established and cut at, approximately, one inch it is
giving good coverage, proper companion grass does
not seem to be entirely clear. Where Kentucky 31
fescue has been used in equal parts with it at
Seaview Country Club, the fairways are most
satisfactory.
On a few courses 70 percent Merion
bluegrass and 30 percent Pennlawn fescues have been
seeded with satisfactory results.
When Merion bluegrass makes up 50 percent
of the seed mixture including other cool season
grasses except bent, Merion will be the predominating
grass. An evaluation of cool season turfgrasses alone
and in mixtures seeded in October, 1953, by representatives of Crops Research Division, U. S. Department
of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, indicates good
turfgrass will continue through the season when
Merion is seeded at sufficient amounts to keep ahead
of other grasses.
Merion showed its superiority over common
bluegrass, red fescue and the tall fescue. Only when
bents were included in mixtures did Merion take a
second rating. The liberal amount of nitrogen
encouraged the bent to predominate.
Since the height of cut was one and one-half
inches or more the bents developed a mat in a few
127

seasons® The mat resulted in smothering the bent,
allowing weeds to come into the plot® Kentucky
Bluegrass was hampered by attacks of leaf spot in
the Spring, being most severe in 1956®
i
After checking the plots and diagnosing
the summary, either a mixture of 75 percent Merion
and 25 percent red fescue or Merion alone should
produce a superior turf when adequately fertilized
and properly maintained®
Kentucky Bluegrass had less leaf spot
the past Spring® This gave several hopes that it
was a grass to depend upon® Past history indicates
leaf spot attacks are slight in one out of ten years®
Where golfers have demanded close clipped turf, bluegrass fails to qualify®
Courses in this area, depending entirely
on cool season grass, have turned from Bluegrass and
fescue to bents® Heat, humidity and heavy rainfall
were unfavorable for the growth of bents during July
and August® Where bent predominated as the result
of a successful renovation program severe weakness
appeared this past Summer® Three courses applied
fungicides to check disease and found this practical®
The Colonial strains of bent are too weak to withstand the 1959 growing conditions®
The Research Project at Penn State to breed
a stronger strain of Colonial needs full support and
it is hoped the program moves rapidly® The weakness
in Colonial bent stimulated the Bermuda planting
program that we heard about yesterday®
Poa annua, as is usually the case, weakened
as the temperatures became higher and with wear from
machine and foot traffic, plus continually rains
disappeared® Any stimulation of growth of poa annua
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during hot weather causes leaf growth that the
limited root growth fails to support*
Any fairway renovation program calls
for checking seed of poa annua in the soil prior
to reseeding* Results secured by spraying sodium
arsenite on the soil while preparing the seed bed
was described in the July, 1958 issue of the Golf
Course Reporter*
William Mellon of Lancaster Country
Club renovated seven fairways this past September,
using the arsenite and effective disk and leveling
harrows prior to seeding a mixture of 75 percent
Merion bluegrass and 25 percent Pennlawn fescue*
With his efficient irrigation system, germination
was quick and play was on mowed fairways three
weeks after seeding*
Fertilizers
The slow acting nitrogen fertilizers
again showed to an advantage. This being noticeable
when temperatures were high and diseases present.
Ureaform nitrogens are finding a place* It is
customary to make two applications a year, early
Spring and again in September by splitting amount
used for entire season*
When the Ureaform nitrogen is used in this
manner then 0-12-24 or 0-20-20 is applied in the
Fall and if soil tests show the need, in the Spring*
In general, eight pounds of actual nitrogen per
1,000 square feet produced sufficient growth*
Diseases
On greens the two diseases giving the most
trouble were Helminthosporium—the melting out—and
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Pythium. Both are difficult to control. Again,
where drainage was adequate and the nitrogen was
withheld, the disease was less. For controlling
these diseases, the following program aided:
lo Well drained greens, both below and
on the surface.
2. Soil mixture having a high percentage
of sand.
3«. Washing off surface of greens each
morning but endeavoring to keep the soil slightly
dry. This was difficult to do during July and
August due to frequent rains.
4. Aerify if soil shows surface compaction,
using one-quarter inch spoons to dry out surface.
5. Spiking of the soil surface weekly is
a helpful aid.
6. Withhold all forms of nitrogen when
temperatures are high. Recent research studied
indicate bent will not extend roots when temperature
is 90 degrees or above. Nitrogen applied to poa
annua during unfavorable growing periods produces
soft leaf growth that is subject to attacks of
disease.
7. Use fungicide regularly. The mixture
of Thiram and Actidione showed promise in trial plots.
8o Hydrated lime dusted, five pounds per
1,000 square feet, proved helpful. Lime must be
applied when leaves are dry, then poled into the
surface soil and water withheld for 24 to 36 hours.
Insects
Grubs continue to be observed in different
areas. If Aldrin, Dieldrin, Chlordane or Heptachlor
are applied by late August or early September, the
grubs will do very little damage to the grass.
However, the insecticide may be applied any time the
ground is not frozen. Keep in mind that the younger
130

the grub when insecticide is applied, the less it
takes to poison the grub.
Cutworms and sod webworms were severe in
most all areas but with the small amount of insecticide in the fungicide sprays the injury was kept to
a minimum. These two insects in their adult form
feed only on the surface and for control the
insecticide must be on the leaf surface.
Tees
There were efforts to improve by rebuilding
and establishing an improved grass. Warm season
grasses being the most efficient grass where there
are a number of days with temperatures in the 90°s
and play is heavy.
Cool season grasses giving good performance
are creeping bents with Arlington having high rating
and Merion bluegrass. Correct grading at the surface
important and proper management a MUST.
Roughs
There was a definite movement for improved
roughs.
Limestone every four or five years and
superphosphate, 400 pounds every two years, supply
sufficient essential nutrients to maintain a uniform
growth of good grasses. By improving the roughs the
weed control problem is reduced.
MR. DOERER:

Thank you, Mr. Hallowell.

131

WETTING AGENTS
MR« JAMES A« REID, Suburban Club of
Baltimore County, Pikesville, Marylands
Although I like to think of myself as
a "progressive" superintendent, I must admit I
scoffed at the idea of using wetting agents when
first approached by a salesman« But now I am
glad I let the salesman talk me into giving it
a try«
We know that one of the main functions
of water in the soil is to carry or transport
ferilizers and other nutrients to the roots of
plants and grasses« An additive which will make
water wetter increases its capacity to supply
these roots with nutrients« It is like using a
ten ton truck to carry a 500 pound load. We can
certainly improve efficiency by loading the truck
to its full capacity«
A wetting agent added to water does just
that—it improves the functioning of a given quantity
of water so that plant nutrients are more evenly
distributed in the soil, and they remain available
to the plant roots for a longer period of time« As
a result we get much more satisfactory plant growth
with less water«
Wetting agents have been in use for many
years in certain fields of science and industry, but
have not yet really come into their own in golf
course use«
During 1959 a comparatively small number of
superintendents produced a turf that was denser, better
rooted and more disease resistant« It was tougher in
relation to wear, temperature, humidity and wilt«
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It should be emphasized that wetting agents
cannot produce overnight miracles. Satisfactory
results involve long range programs, and any turf
must be given a satisfactory growth time to take
advantage of the improved soil conditions. We
who have used wetting agents for one or more
seasons are fully convinced of the advantages to be
gained with a properly administered long range
program.
There are at present a number of companies
manufacturing wetting agents and this number will,
probably, grow as the use of wetting agents becomes
more widespread. Each company will, no doubt,
conduct its own experimental program and come up
with a set of directions to be followed to gain the
best results from the use of its product.
We urge you to adhere closely to the
manufacturer0s instructions. Failure to do this may
prove disastrous. Not only will you fail to gain the
favorable results expected, but you may even cause
extensive and expensive damage.
You will recall the recent to-do about the
cranberry crisis. In the midst of the confusion and
controversy caused by Secretary Flemming°s statement,
one thing is most significant, that the chemical
involved was not used in accordance with the
manufacturer 0 s instructions.
For the past three years we have been using
a non-ionic wetting agent on all our greens, collars,
approaches and tees. This year we've had more play
than ever before and we haven't had a bad green. We've
had no wilt and the turf showed no signs of wear. Our
collars no longer wear out from mower turns since we
started this program.

133

The mechanical benefits of this treatment
were quickly observed in two ways s
I« To our members in that it was the
first time they could take a divot in the fairway.
2 o By an incident with our sprinkler and
golf carts•
Permit me to cite a personal example.
Last year I sprayed ten acres of fairway with a
wetting agent, Aqua-Gro, using approximately six
gallons per acre. We diluted the material ten to
one and gave two applications, then turned on the
traveling sprinklers. Where the sprinklers hit,
the results were fine. Where they missed, we had
burned the fairway so completely that these areas
had to be reseeded.
The instructions plainly state that AquaGro used in this concentration must be watered in.
My failure to do so caused me a lot of trouble and
expense.
Joe Sylvester from North Hempstead, Long
Island, reports the following programs
He mixes one gallon of Aqua-Gro per 100
gallons of water for normal spraying of tees, greens,
approaches and high spots on the fairways. In his
fungicide program, for every 100 gallons of water
he uses only eight ounces of Aqua-Gro along with
one pound of Calo-Clor, three pounds of Tersan and
six pounds of sulfate of ammonia or other soluble
fertilizer. This mixture was applied normally once
a week.
You will note that I gained excellent
results by diluting ten to one for initial
application, followed by extensive watering.
134

Joe Sylvester gained similar excellent
results by diluting 100 to 1 in one instance, and
200 to 1 in the second instance« Here the followup watering was not necessary«
Whichever method of application you prefer
should be used according to the following general
program s
1. Every year apply a total of 24 to 32
ounces of non-ionic wetting agent per 1,000 square
feet« Each application should be at the rate of
eight ounces per 1,000 square feet, requiring three
or four applications per season. This is for normal
conditions« Under severe conditions, apply eight
ounces per 1,000 square feet at monthly intervals.
2« To promote deeper rooting, make both
a Spring and Fall application«
3. For maximum results, keep your program
on schedule« These rates of application are based
on using a blend of non-ionic wetting agents made up
of 100 percent active ingredients« Your average
yearly cost for such a program should be in the
neighborhood of $2.00 to $3«00 per 1,000 square feet.
As we look to the future we are sure to see
new applications of wetting agents. We know that
large cities have increasing problems each year with
water shortages during the dry months. Water rationing for irrigation purposes is now in effect in many
areas, and it has been predicted that in the near
future the watering of lawns will not be permitted
unless a wetting agent has been used on the lawn.
The words "non-ionic wetting agent" may come into
daily use in every home in the country.

135

MR. ROBERT A. MOORE, Aquatrol Corporation
of America, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania2
In December of 1959 many of you might have
read this news item that appeared in quite a few
newspapers 2
"Two scientists observed the planet Venus
from a balloon 15 miles in the stratosphere. The
evidence brought Iback was the first direct scientific
evidence of water on the planet« This could upset
the old belief that Venus is a dead planet."
How universal the word water is« Here we
see the very evidence of water on a planet suggesting
"life"« You gentlemen all know too well, how the
correct or incorrect use of water can mean life or
death to your turf« And yet, all our lives and for
centuries before us, one has dealt with water as if
it was sacred—as if nothing could be done to change
it.
As recent as this past year, one of the
most severe years in turf history, we have heard
about it here today and I think we all knew it before
we came here—with respect to weather conditions.
"These situations and the critical problems
which be in their aftermath point up the fact that,
despite our modern age of science and technology,
Mother Nature is still very much in command."
Our textbooks, our theories, our research,
our whole thinking remained corralled by the
accumulated weight of what we have learned—a learning
that has been based on the use of plain water. In the
last day or two we have seen several slides with
response curves« These charts should show response
curves at both low and normal soil moisture tensions«
136

The few superintendents in your midst who
openly advocate the use of soil wetting agents will
some day topple this giant. The fact is that these
soil moisture tensions can be changed. Clearly, two
factors stand out as fundamental in growing a
superior turf §
I. The rate at which water displaces
itself in a soil.
2c The availability and rate of utilization
of water and nutrients as evaluated in terms of soil
moisture tensions.
Ultimately then, given any soil condition,
what has to be proven is that a plant's physiology
is effected by the soil moisture tension of its
environment, and the tension of this environment is
directly effected by non-ionic wetting agents. Some
day I'll feel a lot better when you fellows don't
say, "What. Use a wetting agent on No. 7, why that's
my best green."
Most of us are familiar with the mechanical
aspect of non-ionic wetting agents where the reduction
in the tension of water allows water to penetrate more
readily and uniformly into problem areas such as hard
spots, thatch, localized dry spots, banks and so forth.
At this point one can easily get lost in a
tangle of dissension as to what the problem is and how
it should be solved. For instance, should we change
our fertilizer program; aerify these areas; aerify and
apply soil wetting agents or should we renovate and
try new grasses? Is the problem one of soil composition?
This, gentlemen, can and does go an and on. But here,
the giant we speak of is still sleeping. At this stage
he still knows little of what happens what a plant is
grown under low tension soil moisture.

137

Dr. Peters0 experiments at the BSBA

experiment station in Urbana, Illinois, studied the
effects of soil moisture tension. His findings in
Agriculture Research, in the May issue of 1957, showed
that soil moisture tensions controlledg
I.
in the soil.

The movement of both water and nutrients

2 o The uptake of both water and nutrients
by the plant.

3o ®utri@nt starvation sets in under high
tension conditions before water starvation (or wilt
as we know it)o
Br. Peters said that, "Mew knowledge of this
complex relationship points the way to better management
of water and nutrients.88
From this and the above information, we may
say that a plant's growth can be determined by the
tension of the soil moisture in which it lives, apd
that these tensions can be controlled by non-ioni©G
wetting agents.
Let us turn for a moment to the ornamental
nursery field where a great deal of information is now
available, and more will be published this year. What
happens to nursery stock grown under low soil moisture
tensions? Mo university has any available information
on this subject, but still something is taking place.
One big advantage in the nursery field is
that one is able to take plant material and follow
its development over a period of months and years.
The plants, grown consistently under low moisture
tensions, make better growth, are denser, are more
disease and wilt resistant and develop better root
systems.

138

You can take the best prepared soil and
physically change the soil moisture and you will
get a result that is new in the history of man.
These same results are being obtained by the
superintendents who have maintained their turf under
low moisture tensions.
These results raise such questions as:
What does constitute a proper soil mixture
for a green?
What is the most effective fertilizer
program?
What grasses are most desirable?
To each question we can point to case after
case where changing the physical characteristics of
water gives us a new insight into our use of this basic
ingredient of life inself—WATER. This requires a
réévaluation of all the good maintenance practices
that have been developed over the years—reevaluating
them in terms of soil moisture tensions.
It can truthfully be said that this is a new
philosophy of growing plant material. Belief in these
results means that one must grow under low soil moisture
tensions. But, gentlemen, these results do not happen
overnight. As Jim stated, a program must be followed,
just as you now do, with your use of fertilizers,
fungicides, herbicides, and so forth. A blend of nonionic wetting agents must be used, and they must be
used according to the general program outlined.
When the non-ionic wetting agents are diluted
sufficiently, one ounce in one gallon of water, or
approximately 100 to 1, you may apply as much of this
solution to an area as you wish and there will be
absolutely no damage. A complete tank full could be
put on a green with no harm.
139

We hear, as we've heard in the last two
days, the cost records of the various turf programs.
You will be interested to know that the cost of the
program to maintain low tensions in your greens,
collars, approaches and tees on an eighteen hole
course will average less than $450.00 a year.
What can be expected from following such
a program on your turf? After consistently growing
under these low moisture tension conditions, superintendents have essentially eliminated syringing.
They report very little evidence of wilt; their
fungicidal program and control are more effective;
their turf is denser; more resistant to wear and
deeper rooted. During 1959 they have had more play
than ever before and their greens are better than
ever.
These results certainly require your own
individual investigation. Take some portion of your
course this year and follow a program. For instance,
try it on your tees; use it when reseeding or resodding;
try it on your collars and approaches; treat your worst
and best greens, et cetera. Find out for yourself.
Let's not limit our thinking at this time
to past experiences where wetting agents have been used sparingly. We are talking today about growing
at low soil moisture tensions. This is not a one shot
proposition, it is a program.
Thank you.

140

AIR AND WATER MANAGEMENT FOR BETTER TURF
MR* Oo J* NQER, Milwaukee Sewerage
Commission, Milwaukee, Wisconsins
I am going to try and cover a few of
the highlights of the 37 years that I have been
associated with turf grass.
Of course, yow must remember that the
impossible of today becomes the commonplace of
tomorrow, and I don°t presume to tell you that you
should live in the past because I don°t think any of
us should do that.
On the other hand, there are basic principles
and there are lessons in the past that will go on and
will help us over some of the rough spots in the future,
and I think that is one of the things that we must
remember 0
I can recall in my youth that I thought
some of these old fellows, John McNamara, Fred
Burkhardt and so on and so forth, were all wet and
yet from them and Joe Valentine I have learned to
respect them, and they have taught me a great deal
through the years, and I want to take this opportunity
of thanking them for the contributions they have made
to me.
In 1922 George Mortimer, who has passed
on long years since, and I established some fertilizer
plots on a piece of old pasture turf at the University
Farm and as we were making these fertilizer applications,
Bo Do Leit of the Agronomy Department happened by, and
he said, "How much is this costing per acre?" I told
him, "We don°t care* We are not interested in costs
at this momento" But he persisted and wanted to know
and when we told him about what the cost would be per
141

acre, he said, "I can rent ten acres of pasture
land for what that stuff is going to cost that
you put one" And yet, it was the beginning of
something that has paid dividends, even in that
field®
Slide® I think you can see the white
spots on the plot in the background, and that is
clover and it is volunteer clover® There was no
clover seeded on the plot and the plot looked about
the way the foreground did before the fertilizer was
applied, and that is the result of what happened when
we used 400 pounds of 50 percent muriate of potash
to the acre® Just look at the excellent stand of
volunteer clover. And, of course, what we should do
is tell you, "Don't use potash because clover is a
weed in turf grass®"
On the other hand, I might show you another
plot on that series in which we use 400 pounds of
potash and we use 400 pounds of ammonium sulphate
and there was a beautiful stand of grass with almost
no clover in it® And to roe, the answer or the lesson
to be learned from that is, so far as we are concerned,
remember that potash is essential and use it so as to
satisfy the demand of the grass, but don't try to
produce pasture turf on a golf course ®
When Tuckaway was built in Milwaukee in the
early 20°s, the fairways were seeded with 125 pounds
of grass seed to the acre® The mixture was, approximately, 80 to 85 percent Kentucky Bluegrass and 15
percent of red-top® We established some fairway
fertilizer plots going across the fairway that is on
heavy soil®
Slide®

Here is the unfertilized plot.

Slide®

The next one is where we applied
142

superphosphate at 100 pounds of actual phosphoric
acid per acre, and notice the uniformity of the
stand on that plot. That is the reason why we have
always advocated general use of phosphate before
seeding because, particularly on heavy soils, one
gets a stand of uniform turf or of grass. Then
the problem of developing good turf is simplified.
Slide. The
nitrogen, in addition
acid, and you can see
growth as a result of
the phosphoric acid.

next we used 100 pounds of
to the 100 pounds of phosphoric
that there is more vegetated
the use of nitrogen along with

Slide. On another plot we used potash but
there was no difference. When Blue Mount was built
in about 1924 we established some fertilizer plots
on several of the approaches to the greens and we used
100 pounds of nitrogen and 100 pounds of phosphoric
acid. The area you see in the background and the
area in the foreground was seeded at the same time.
The picture was taken in the Spring following the seeding and there had been a lot of Winter
kill on the unfertilized area in the foreground. The
young seedlings did not get off to a good enough start
so that they could survive the heaving action of Winter
frosts.
Slide. When this course was built at Fort
Washington, I was up there and told them that if they
didn't fertilize the fairways there, probably, would
be no grass because they were going to be so late seeding in the Fall.
There were several farmers on the committee
and they made this statement, "Why, whoever heard of
fertilizing pastures or a grass seeding? All he's
trying to do is sell you a bill of goods because he
143

wants to sell it«" So, no fertilizer was used for
seeding. Next Spring one of the directors called
me and said, "Your prediction has come true and I
am going to pay for the reseeding of the fairways
or abandon the golf course« What shall we do?"
I told him to fertilize the landing areas and the
approaches and not to fertilize the other areas.
Of course, I don°t need to tell you what happened
as a result of the phosphate and nitrogen which were
used on those areas«
Slide. Here is one of a number of
fertilizer plots on one of the courses In Philadelphia
and if you don't think we can grow good dandelions
there, you should have been in our area in the days
before 24 D. But notice that there are fewer blooms
between the two white lines and on both sides and
that was due to suppression of the dandelion as a
result of fertilization.
Slide. That was the basis which was used
when Milwaukee Country Club put in a water system
and got mostly clover and weed. We told them that
fairways could be changed by fertilization.
Slide. This is a picture of grub control
with lead arsenate in Connecticut. Now, I think
that it shows that where the lead went on there was
good control but it certainly was a lousy job of
application.
When Dr. Leach worked out the method for
grub control, at one of the green section meetings,
he made the statement that lead arsenate was the
answer to the weed problem.
Now, he was maybe a little overzealous
with his remarks but, at least, if created an interest
and, probably as a result of those remarks, Moirttie'fh
144

and Fred Grau began to do some work on selective
weed control, and the use of arsenicals go back to
that work which Fred Grau did in Washington.
Slide. Now, the next picture is one that
we never use. It shows poa annua control. Here is
John Darrah at Beverly Country Club. If you will
notice the outline, he is standing in the area on
which lead arsenate was applied in March or April
in the Spring at 250 pounds per acre.
There wasn't a spear of poa annua in that
treated area and we thought, "Well, there is the
answer to the poa annua problem." The following
year he repeated the treatment but it didn't work
and, as a result, we have never before showed this
picture. It does illustrate that maybe lead
arsenate has some virtues and we don't know all of
the answers as to how to use it.
Slide. The first big job of fairway.
Weed control was done at Toronto Golf Country Club
by Purdy. He used arsenic acid. He and the chairman
came to Washington. They talked with Montieth and
Grau and then had courage to treat all eighteen
fairways—something that I never would have advocated.
They transformed these weed infested fairways with
the spraying and fertilizer into some of the finest
fairways that I knew of on this continent.
Slide. The next one shows the discoloration
from the arsenic acid. The unsprayed area on the
right and the sprayed on the left. They sprayed about
three times.
Slide. Here is one of the roughs—many of
you have seen this picture—At Sunset Ridge in the
Chicago area. A very fine crop of dandelions, with
good turf on the fairway, which was mostly bent, and
145

the dandelion cleanup there was done with sodium
arsenite and the rate was about 12 pounds per acre.
They sprayed two or three times.
Slide. And the next picture should show
that same rough the next year. A Bluegrass takes a
bad beating. It discolors badly but it withstands
the treatment.
Slide. The next picture will show plots
which we established at Brynwood in Milwaukee. The
spots on the left were sprayed with applications of
sodium arsenite. The ones on the right were where
we applied milarsenite.
Slide. And this is Northmore where Frank
Donnelly used sodium arsenite at 12 pounds to the
acre for the roughs, to cleanup the broad-leafed
weeds, and he used milarsenite on the fairways, and
you can get the difference in the discoloration as
the result of the dry and the spraying method with
really heavy rates of sodium arsenite.
Slide. And here is another picture of
those same plots at Brynwood showing excellent
control of clover with milarsenite and sodium
arsenite.
Slide. This is a picture of one of the
fairways at the course in Milwaukee, and I think you
will all agree that it is a very fine crop of clover.
The fairways have not been fertilized, as you can
suspect and, of course, they were worried about the
clover. The players couldn't find the ball because
of the white, particularly when it was in bloom.
Slide. We established some plots with
milarsenite. I think you can see that with the two
applications—-the one application only in the b a c k —
146

that there was a very good cleanup. And that is the
way this course, along with some fertilizer, got
clover under control.
Slide. I remember that when we started
with milarsenite, I visited Marshall Farnham. He
said, "O.Jo, evidently you don't think much of
milarsenite. You have got to put something in
with it to do the job." So I said, "Is that right,
Marshall?" When I came back I found him playing
with it. So, Marshall was one of the first to do
a lot of work with arsenicals. This is one of the
fairways on the old course which, I believe, had
been treated the year before.
Slide. I presume this is one of the
reasons why bent was used on that golf course. Before
the open, which was played there, I think the outline
of this fairway was changed? part of the rough was
converted into fairways.
When that was seeded, instead of using
Bluegrass only, there was some bent in it. Notice
the turf on the right as compared with the turf on
the left.
Slide. Brynwood had fairways that looked
like this, and when they got a little more affluent
they decided to do something about it. They treated
one fairway with milarsenite and fertilized it. They
used about a total of a ton of fertilizer to the
acre and part of it in the form of milarsenite, two
applications at 400 pounds per acre each time, which
was about 12 pounds of sodium arsenite because there
was three pounds of sodium arsenite in each hundred
pounds of milarsenite.
Slide. The next one is the same fairway
a year or two later. So, they went over to scrape
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fertilizer and for several years I was giving
milarsenite credit that it did not deserve for
controlling clover.
Slide. The next picture will show what
finally happened to the turf. Even with a considerable amount of fertilizer, clover started to creep
back into those fairways. I said, "Les, I think
we better get to doing some work here before these
Jewish officials begin to jump your frame. What
about the clover?" So, by that time 2-4-D and
2-4-5-T were available. Some plots were laid down
with milarsenite, with sodium arsenite and with
arsenic acid, with 24-B and 245-T.
Slide. The next picture will show the
plot which was the 245-T. As a result, these
fairways now are sprayed once year year with about
a pound of 245-T and a half a pound of 24-B each
year. They receive about 70 to 75 pounds of
nitrogen in the Fall and another 50 to 60 pounds
in June, and the June application ordinarily goes
on in the last half of the month. They used to put
on all the fertilizer in the Fall.
These are unwatered fairways and when they
got leaf spots pretty bad, I felt maybe we were shortchanging the grass on phosphorous or potash, and we
laid down some plots using the 0-14-14 at 1,000 pounds
per acre. Then we used nitrogen across these plots
at about 30 and 60 pounds to the acre.
In June I happened to be out and noticed
that leaf spots were taking its toll but there were
less leaf spots where the nitrogen had been applied
than it was alongside of it and, as a consequence and
the result of those, these fairways had been getting
some nitrogen during the last half of June and since
then up to now, leaf spot has not been a serious
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problem on the fairways, and the June fertilizer
helps hold the color on those fairways as we go into
dry weather in the Summer«
Slide« Here is your able President when
he was at the Country Club of Cleveland, and this is
the sprayer which he used on the renovation project
at the country club« At that time, I think the rates
were, probably, in the range of three or four pounds
to the acre, three or four treatments, and then
followed with seeding rates which are much lighter
than are being used today«
Slide« This will give you some idea of the
discoloration and the burn and, in many of those
areas, it was due to clover.
Slide« I was at St« Clair one time when
Dave had bad fairways and he was running around
trying to keep the poa annua alive« I said, "You are
crazy« Let the poa annua die«" The club insisted
they do something with it. We encouraged him to
renovate one fairway« Dave thinks if one pound of
fertilizer is good, ten pounds is that much better.
So, instead of using a couple of pounds of sodium
arsenite, he went out with 25 to 30 pounds of sodium
arsenite to the acre«
This is how the fairway looked« It looked
like an old wheat field« Then he seeded, and instead
of 20, he used 30 pounds of seed, with good results«
Slide. A couple of years ago, when Sciatocc
renovated their fairways, they used 24-D and 245-T
in June to get the broadleaf weeds, along with the
clover. In August they came back with a heavy dose
of sodium arsenite at 30 pounds to the acre. Then
the fairways were fertilized and a week later they
were sprayed again with about five pounds of sodium
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arsenite because some poa annua was starting to
germinate. Then, after seeding, they were sprayed
again«
Slide. The following picture will depict
a fairway three weeks after the seeding job. The
seeding rate there was in the range of 80 to 100
pounds of seed to the acre of a mixture of about
equal parts Highland Astoria and Seaside Bent.
Slide. These fairways at Seiatoee,
incidentally, came through very well in 1959. How
they are going to fare in the next four or five
years, I can't say. I hope in that time we can
find the answer to maintenance of a fairway of that
kind in the belt where Columbus is located.
This is one of the approaches at Wingfoot.
It was sprayed with about 25 to 30 pounds of sodium
arsenite to the acre two years ago in order to thin
out and get the poa annua, and then the Thacter was
used to introduce bent into that approach. I was at
Wingfoot in July and there was more bent in that
area than before this job was done.
Slide. Milwaukee Country Club developed
good fairways as a result of fertilizer. Weed
insecticides were unknown at the time, but ehickweed
became a problem on these watered fairways. Clover
has never been bad and there has not been too much
poa annua in these fairways.
In the early days milarsenite was used to
keep the chickweed under control. The treatments were
made in September, October, and sometimes even in
early November. From two to three treatments are
needed to get a satisfactory kill.
Slide.

The next picture is one of the
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original plots at Washington and you will notice
that this work was done by horticulturists, not by
turf grass people, because they speak in terms of
thousand parts per minute. But there is the first
plots—the picture of the first plots at Washington
with 24-D. I saw them and was very much impressed.
And the minute I got back to Milwaukee, I hiked out
to Milwaukee Country Club and we laid out some plots
along the edge of No. 15 fairway, partly right in
the fairway and partly in the rough.
Slide. Here we are back at Farnham's
course, when he was doing the renovation deal with
milarsenite and 24-D had come into the picture. You
may correct me if I am wrong, after seeding or
immediately before, 24-D was sprayed on the area on
the right-hand side and it was not used on the lefthand side.
Notice the effect that 24-D has had upon
suppressing the new growth of seed. For that reason
we have always tried to get people, on a renovation
job, to use 24-D or 245-T in June, so that the effects
would be dissipated by the time seed is put into the
ground in August or September.
Slide. Here we are back in Milwaukee. We
tried out ammonium sulphate and different materials.
The hanlite and other products were not then available.
I think you can notice what has happened to the bent
along the edge of that fairway from a spraying, using
one and a half pounds of 24-D to the acre.
As a result of these treatments, the
fairways at Milwaukee Country Club never got 24-D
until they changed chairmen. As long as Ted
Booterbaugh was on the job 24-D was never used.
Slide.

We, of course, wondered if 24-D
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should be substituted for milarsenite to control
chickweed on these fairways and so we laid down
plotso This is the ammonium sulphate? it got no
treatment. A was sprayed once? B twice and c
three times with 24-B.
Slide. The next picture shows
adjacent spots in which we used milarsenite at
200, 300 and 400 pounds per acre, three times, and
you can see the grasses, even in the Fall, it is a
little greener as a result of the nitrogen in the
milarsenite. And because of these treatments, the
fairways? sodium arsenite was relied upon to control
chickweed.
Slide. Joe Valentine, I have to apologize
for this picture. It was a very poor black and
white picture in the days before we had Kodachrome
and I guess I wasn't too good a photographer at
that time. 1 was out at Merion at one time and over
on this nursery which, I think, was Washington bent.
When I saw it, I said, "Joe, what fungicides did you
use on the right which you didn't use on the left,
where a dollar spot is so bad?" He pulled me aside
and said, "I will tell you if you won't tell anybody
because I might get fired for using lime." That was
in the acid era of turf maintenance. He said, "All
of that area you got over there was gone over with
a little hydrated lime about three weeks ago." There
was no dollar spot on that, and it was blistered on
this left-hand side, and it impressed me.
Slide. When I was a Troy, New York, one
time—-and this is a fescue unwatered fairway—and I
noticed this green line up on the crest of the hill
and a similar one down at the bottom of the hill.
So, I asked Fred Shultz, "What did you do here on these
two places that wasn't done on the rest of the fairway?"
He said, "We had a local rule which permitted the
152

player to improve his shots on the hillside and
we put down a lime line so as to show them the area
in which the ball could be lifted®"
Notice how that lime has helped the turf
withstand^ drought®
Slide® The next picture shows Fred in
the background® This was taken in June, 1954, at
Brookline Country Club in the Boston, Massachusetts
area®
I noticed a green line of turf around every
green on that golf course and it puzzled me® When I
asked the superintendent—-I said, "I can't understand
this®" He said, "Maybe if I tell you what was done
it will become clear to you®"
When the last open tournament was played
at Brookline, which was 20 years to the month before,
they did not use ropes to confine a gallery? they
laid down a lime line to show the gallery where they
were to stop® That soil I tested around there, and
it had a PH of about 5 and I noticed that the effect
of that lime persisted for 20 years®
Slide® The next is a picture of some plots
which we had in Brentwood® An old tennis court was
converted to a practice green in Brentwood®
I think
you will notice that the strip on the right is
practically free of clover® Now, this piece of turf
had been neglected and I told our boys, I said, "Well,
I am going to do something here that ought not be
done® I know it is wrong but we are going to do it
anyway and see what happens ®"
We put on milarganite, 60 pounds per
thousand square feet, 60 or 70 pounds® Notice what
it did® When the turf and the soil is as poor as
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the soil is there, one can do that with impunity,
but if the turf is growing at a good level and if
the levels of fertility of the soil are up where
they should be, an application of that kind could
be disastrous, particularly in mid-summer0
Slide* This is a fertilizer plot at one
of the courses in Milwaukee, and I think you can
notice the dollar spot on the unfertilized as
contrasted with the area on the left*
Slide* The next picture will show the
plots. The sign shouldn°t say, "No Fertilizer",
it should say, "No Nitrogen"* Phosphorous and
potash was applied over the entire area* Here
you can see the different fungicides and you can
notice it took with caloclor, four ounces, to stop
the dollar spot. Thiazine and special semesan
weren°t doing much of a job under these conditions*
Slide* The next will show the area on
which nitrogen was used* Notice one to two ounces
was doing a good job with Caloclor, and the results
with others were better and they were doing a more
satisfactory job of controlling disease*

Nitrogen"*
thousand*

Slide* This is just a closeup of the "No
The Caloclor, 1, 2, and 4 ounces a

Slide* The next picture is the one where
we used, roughly, a pound and a quarter of nitrogen
per month on this strip, and notice how the fertilizer
has helped make Caloclor a good fungicide* Some of
you condemn a fungicide and you may not be fair in
doing it because conditions may be such that no
fungicide will operate as intended*
Slide.

This is.at Bel Air and Superintendent,
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Joe Martinez. This is a very fine example of iron
chlorosis on a bent green in the Los Angeles area,
and I am sure there would have been no loss of
turf had iron been applied promptly.
It isn't a matter of saying, "We will
do it tomorrow." It is a matter of doing it
yesterday. The minute you see it, get it on and
stop the chlorosis.
Let's go on to the next one.
Slide. Here is a 30 inch mower with a
grass catcher at Hercules Country Club. Here is
the part that's been converted over to U-3. That
is the way the other tees looked before the
conversion. I think it is important to use a
mower with that kind of a grass catcher if you want
to make your golfers happy. It costs more money
but you are there to give them a good golf course.
Slide. This is the Bermuda on the
practice field at West Point Military Academy.
They are limited in their practice field. We tried
Kentucky 31 and every kind of grass and never had any
luck. These were seeded with pregerminated Bermuda.
Slide. The next picture will show the
stadium at Philadelphia two years ago. This is about
the middle of September.
Slide. Right after I took this picture I
went to West Point. I told Colonel Blaik, "There
will be no alibis so far as the turf is concerned.
The turf will be perfect. It is up to you to produce
the team." He did. He beat Navy, and then he had
sense enough to resign. That is what Casey Stengle
should have done last year.

155

Slideo The next picture will show how the
No. 2 fairway looks. You can see where we had burned
the area. The Y arrow—we had to go back and do it
twice more. The next Spring, by doing that, we got
almost 100 percent control of the Y arrow.
At the meetings last year John Gallagher
told about 2445-TP. He told me that was the answer
to the arrow problem. As a result we laid down some
trials alongside No. 18 fairway, as you will see in
the next picture.
Slide. Here is the results we g o t —
controlling Y arrow with 245-TP. We used threequarters of a pound to a pound and a half of 2445-TP
to an acre. Notice the cleanup.
MR. BOERERs

Thank you.

TURFGRASS CONFERENCE'S CONTRIBUTION
TO GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE
MR. T. T. TAYLOR, Northeastern Agronomist,
Green Section, United States Golf Association, New
Brunswick, New Jerseys
MR. T. T. TAYLOR § I hardly think it is
necessary to say that this conference is an example
of the value of TURFGRASS CONFERENCE'S CONTRIBUTION
TO GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE.
"What are the contributions of turfgrass
conferences to golf course maintenance?w
At first the answer seems obvious—
disseminate information for producing better turfgrasses. But to the inquisitive mind, which may
happen to be that of the chairman of the green
156

committee or the club treasurer, this may not be
sufficient to approve a $200.00 to $500.00 item
in the budget for conference attendances, which,
incidentally, may be one reason why some clubs are
not represented at conferences.
Some sober and serious thinking may bring
the answers into a clearer perspective.
It is the purpose of this discussion to
explore in a serious vein those contributions which
are less obvious 0
First and foremost, it is the golf course
superintendent who benefits most, and in several ways,
as an individual and as a professional turfman.
As an individual he broadens himself
culturally, socially and intellectually on both
regional and national levels. Culturally, what
better examples could be cited than the national
conferences which have been held in Washington,
Louisville, Chicago, and other cities which are
centers of culture in the arts and in the sciences.
Such an atmosphere provides
to learn from art galleries, museums,
other noteworthy institutions. These
by which we grow into a well-balanced

opportunities
libraries, and
are the means
individual.

During the forthcoming national conference
in Houston, opportunities will be provided for sightseeing tours into Mexico. Imagine the possibilities
available for learning something about the customs
and traditions of our neighbors to the south and
your own responsibility of being ambassadors of goodwill from the United States. By all means visit
Mexico, if possible, you will find it a unique and
unforgettable experience.
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Professionally, the opportunities to grow
are unlimited through attendance at turfgrass
conferences. It seems hardly necessary to dwell at
great length on this phase of conference contribution,
but it is, nevertheless, worthy of some consideration.
Reflect for awhile on the topics which have
been discussed at this conference; then, in addition,
review in your mind discussions presented in previous
conferences in both the scientific and the practical
aspects of turf management. You will, probably,
conclude that there is no better method of obtaining
progressive information than to get the facts direct
from individuals interested in scientific developments
and from others with experience in practical
application.
Socially—you experience contact and
intermingling in a wide range of economic and social
levels, and through this medium the individual develops
a democratic attitude so necessary in human relations.
At what stage of development in maintenance
standards would we be without knowledge of the use of
chemicals in weed and disease control, and fertilizers,
and an infinite number of cultural and management
practices of various types of grasses If turfgrass
conferences were not the Instruments of progress in
meeting the demands of the golfer of today?
No golf course superintendent can remain •
static in his professional development. Progress must
be his incentive or ultimately he will fall by the
wayside. Turfgrass conferences may be used as a
springboard to leadership in his profession. Active
participation in'conference programs, either from the
platform or from the floor, provides a means of
developing confidence in yourself and respect for
your capabilities from others.
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The golf course superintendent is a
professional man and, as such, is a member of a fraternal
group banded together to promote turfgrass maintenance
as a profession. Only by strengthening this group in
both numbers and quality can you achieve a more stable
position as a profession. Here again the turfgrass
conference is an instrument of progress by attracting
increased numbers in attendance, and by providing
opportunities for self-improvement.
Conferences are also an instrument for
publicity, which focuses the spotlight on the
profession and helps to establish the profession as
an authority in your field of endeavor. "In unity
there is strength" and a closer bond of professional
fraternalism is not the least of the advantages
provided by turfgrass conferences.
Recognition of the capability of the golf
course superintendent has as its first source the
chairman of the green committee and club officials.
To evaluate properly the capabilities of the
superintendent, the chairman should have some knowledge
of his own responsibilities and of the problems
involved in producing turf to meet the requirements
of the club's standards. He is the go-between in the
channel of information between the superintendent
and the members.
To accomplish his task he must have both
the "golfer's viewpoint" and the superintendent's
viewpoint clearly in mind. These viewpoints are
necessary to explain why certain projects or
maintenance practices are necessary as well as to
fortify himself with sound information for obtaining
budget approval.
Do not delude yourself into believing he is
not interested in progress in turfgrass development.
More and more chairmen and club officials are attend159

ing turf conferences each year. To the chairman
his job is an avocation, but one which he finds
intriguing and rewarding. He usually is a business
or professional man and naturally can devote only
a limited time to the golf course job. Nevertheless,
he is the man in top authority on the golf course
and the one to whom the superintendent is responsible.
He will, as time permits, attend conferences and
meetings in a conscientious endeavor to keep up with
progressive ideas in turf management. Frequently, he
becomes President of the club, a position which
carries considerable authority.
With both the superintendent, the chairman,
and other club officials fortified with information
obtained from turfgrass conferences, it is a logical
conclusion that the members, in turn, will derive the
benefits.
All of these are contributions of conferences
which are national in scope. But what about conferences
at the regional and local levels? Regional conferences,
such as this Mid-Atlantic Conference, are the culmination
of a series of local meetings held throughout the year
and serve the purpose of bringing together the various
groups for solving or discussing mutual problems, and
this mutuality develops an intimacy and a more relaxed
freedom of expression between men in the practical
field and those in scientific research, so that the
endeavors of individuals and of groups are brought
together in a combined effort to gain their use
objectives.
In a recent issue of "The Golf Course
Reporter", Elmer Border stated in the "President's
Message" to the G.C.S.A.—"Progress is our Business".
I should like to add that "Knowledge is Progress"
and that knowledge is turfgrass conferences0 most
important contribution.
160