President— LEON V. ST. PIERRE Longmeadow Country Club 51 Fenwood Road Longmeadow 6, Mass. Phone LO 7-5562 Secretary— First Vice-President— ANTHONY CARANCI JR. Ledgemont Country Club 22 Hillview Drive North Providence 4, R. 1. Phone PA 3-1688 Treasurer— ARTHUR L. CODY Wollaston Golf Club Phone Supt, Office at Club GR 2-3535 Home GR 2-7913 19 Ardell Street No. Quincy, Mass. Second Vice-President— RICHARD C. BLAKE Mt. Pleasant Country Club 2 1 1 Sewall Street Boylston, Mass. Phone 869-2737 FLOYD N. WIGET Bellevue Golf Club 23 Lynn Falls Parkway Saugus, Mass. 233-1353 Trustee— N. J. S P E R A N D I O Concord Country Club Concord, Mass. Phone E M 9-4723 Trustee— ALBERT L. ALLEN Kernwood Country Club Salem, Mass. Phone PI 4-7783 Trustee— W I L L I A M ASH 9 Potton Street No. Dartmouth, Mass. Phone WY 3-8767 Finance Committee Chairman— W I L L I A M ASH 9 Patton Street No. Dartmouth, Mass. Phone WY 3-8767 Educational Committee ChairmanT H O M A S CURRAN Oak Hill Country Club 37 Parker Street Fifchburg, Mass. Phone Dl 2-9198 Golf Committee C h a i r m a n Edward J. Murphy Lexington Country Club 194 Oxbow Road Wayland, Mass. Phone 358-7410 Newsletter Committee ChairmanM A N U E L N. FRANCIS Belmont Country Club 387 Davis Road Bedford, Mass. Phone 275-8830 Past President— JOSEPH BUTLER United Shoe Country Club 3 Ridgewood Terrace Beverly, Mass. Phone W A 2-1263 Sdociation March Meeting President's Message At the Director's Meeting at the Waltham Field Station, Dr. Naglie discussed the interest of the Field Station in establishing an experimental plot area. Dr. Rosenthal will head the program at the Field Station. The turf research conducted would be primarily with soil fertility and the new soil amendments and their relationship to turf. ••jaa. After one year of deliberation, your Board of Directors voted to present to the membership, a plan, whereby, all commercial men interested in our monthly meetings could do so, with a $25.00 subscription to our Newsletter. Naturally, this decision was an embarrassing one for some of us, who have had much help and counsel from several of the faithful dealers, who have rendered us service for nearly a half century. Business Meeting Impetus to promote the National G. C. S. A. to Boston for the year 1967 or 1969 was given by President St. Pierre. It is slated for Washington. D. C. for 1967 but the thought is that with a little persuasion it might be brought to Boston. New Associate Member — It was very gratifying to receive, at the first call, a response of eleven subscribers. Some even -contained notes-and letters of approval. — We sincerely hope that this plan will give our commercial friends a feeling of participation and belonging. Leon V. St. Pierre, President Voted in as anew member was David Clements, Crystal Springs Golf Club, Haverhill, Mass. Application for Membership Application for new memberships were read by Anthony Caranci. Those applying are: A Fact . . . Soil has the highest concentration of life power on earth. One acre of farm soil taken to a depth of one foot can be said to contain 100 lbs. of algae , 100 lbs. of yeast, 200 lbs. of protozoans, several tons of bacteria, a ton of FUNGI and various other components. NO WONDER THE WORK OF RAISING TURF IS SO UNPREDICTABLE. Supt. George E. Gorton, Jr. Furnace Brook Golf Club Quincy, Mass. Supt. Harvey Powers Rockport Golf Club Rockport, Mass. v jC-- Supt. Donald Allen Daigle Woodstock Country Club Woodstock, Vt. The educational program had Clifford Chater speak and show slides about various shade and ornamental trees throughout the area. He discussed pests and their related affect on various trees. Cycles of Life . . . The three great cycles of life are: The nitrogen cycle for protein, the carbon cycle for food, the mineral cycle that sparks life. April Meeting The next meeting will be held at the Waltham Field Station, April 12th. This will be the Dealer's Meeting. Those dealers who want time will have to make arrangements with Tom Curran before April. SCHEDULE: Director's Meeting 10:30 A.M. Business Meeting 11:30 A.M. Lunch 12:30 P.M. Dealer's Program 1:30 P.M. Our deep sympathies are extended to the family of Samuel Mitchel, Jr. • OF Help Wonted! In a world of chemistry, machines, and educated people the grass plant relies almost totally on nature and the weather that surrounds it. Man often tries to alter the condition that the plant is exposed to but seldom are results obtained that are "the answer". Of prime importance is the winter season and the effect that weather has on the plant and man's inability to control the element of weather; and their relatent effect on the grass plant. Most of the research that has been done is for the plant during the growing months of the summer, though isn't a perennial grass during its dormant season as important as it is during its growing season? Plants that are injured or destroyed during severe winters often leave voids that take a whole summer to replace and, in many instances, unwanted species of plants invade these destroyed areas. Many is the superintendent who can tell the story of the fine stands of Bents that were destroyed by severe winters and replaced by annual bluegrass, clover or other undesirable plants. N E W E N G L A N D The Problem of Bridges With the increased traffic of the present day golf course and now the addition of Electric and Gasoline Golf Carts many Superintendents are finding that their bridges are obsolete. I feel that I have come up with a substantial bridge that will take care of the increased traffic and at the same time last a good many years with little or no maintenance. I have a brook that runs through or touches seven of my nine holes. It runs parallel along my first hole and you have to cross it for the second, third, fourth, sixth and ninth fairways. This year I had to construct three bridges to handle the traffic. We also had another problem, the brook is thirty feet across where the bridges were going and I didn't want to obstruct the flow of water with supports for the bridge. I went down to the Utility Company yard office downtown and asked them to leave any discarded poles at the course. I used these poles to carry the span across the brook. Probably, the most difficult problem that we face is that even with today's knowledge of the weather it is impossible to predict the type of winter that is to prevail. And if remedies are to be offered to control damage to turf a much greater knowledge of the weather will have to be known. The problems are great and many and someday the little grass plant will receive the same beneficial treatment in winter that it receives in summer. We dug down on both sides of the brook and built a wall of concrete blocks. I left spaces in the wall to insert the poles to keep them from shifting from side to side. By leaving three feet on either side of the center pole my bridge would be about six feet wide. These measurements can be adjusted to fit your needs. After the poles were secured, we put down the floor of 2" x 10" hard pine that was bought second hand from a local wrecking company. The 2" x 10"s were spaced a half an inch apart and then spiked with 30 penny spikes. We cut the 2" x 10"s in seven foot lengths so that they extended six inches over either edge. One of my members gave me some heavy rubber conveyor belting that I nailed to the floor. This will withstand the wear from tires and the golf spikes almost indefinitely. To insure added safety for the golfer we bolted a curbing of 4" x 6"s to the edge of the bridge. But for now and with what knowledge we have about turf we hope old mother nature will supplement our knowledge with a little bit of kindness. Now I have abridge that is inexpensive to build, takes the abuse of golf spikes, can carry the golf carts and needs little or no maintenance. It must be realized the great problem that exists in turf research of this nature and the numerous factors to be considered: Type of Fall, early or late Winters, thaws, types of cover, temperature range, early or late Springs, and many other factors. The Editor, Manny Francis by Dean Robertson, Superintendent Bradford Country Club Bradford, Mass. NMETtR Contributions from Our Friends Larchmont Irrigation Co, Larclimont Lane Lexington, Massachusetts Grounds Equipment Co., Inc. 333 Boylston Street Newton Centre, Massachusetts Geoffrey S. Cornish Golf Course Architect Fiddler's Green Amherst, Massachusetts Turf Equipment Co. 28 Rutledge Road Natick, Massachusetts Sawtelle Brothers^ Jet. Routes 128 & 62 Danvers, Massachusetts Johns Manville Sales Corp. 150 Causeway Street Boston, Massachusetts The Clapper Co. 1121 Washington Street West Newton, Massachusetts Philip A. Wogan Golf Course Architect 21 Budleigh Avenue Beverly, Massachusetts Sajierintenden Paulini & Vespa Brothers Box 563 Hopkinton, Massachusetts ti 4iAocialion OF N E W The Hubbard Hall Chemical Co. P.O. Box 790 Waterbury, Connecticut Singleton Irrigations Systems, Inc. Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts Tom Irwin Co. Bennet Hill Road Rowley, Massachusetts Choline Abbott Spray & Farm Equipment Co. Waltham Street Lexington, Massachusetts E N G L A N D M A N U E L N. FRANCIS Belmont Country Club 387 Davis Rood Bedford, M a s s . Phone 275-8830