This NEWSLETTER
is published
monthly by the Greenkeepers Club of
New England, and sent free to its members and their Greens' Chairmen. Subscription price ten cents a copy, or a
dollar a year.
GUY C. WEST

Editor

312 Mt. Pleasant St., Fall River, Mass.

H O W A R D D. F A R R A N T Business Mgr.
132 Russett Rd., West Roxbury, Mass.

September, 1933

Vol. 5, No. 8

W H E N DREAMS COME TRUE
Frank H. Wilson
Charles River Country Club
Newton Centre, Massachusetts
After years of intensive work on fairways, covering a program of topdressing, fertilization and seeding with a
mixture of Chewing's fescue and bent
which was nullified by periods of severe
drought; the Club decided to look into
fairway irrigation. In January of this
year, the president appointed a committee, and after many plans were discussed and estimates looked over, it was
decided to employ Mr. Wendell P. Miller
to lay-out an irrigation system for fairways greens and tees; a Miller hoseless,
one man, high pressure system.
Mr. Miller's method of approaching
the problem was very interesting. A
soil analysis was made to determine the
type of soil, the amount of organic matter present, the pH. and the available
phosphorus. Also, a contour map of the
course was made and the steepness of
the slopes studied. The amount of rainfall as given by the local Meteorological
station was taken into consideration.
This is by no means conclusive, as the
rain during the summer comes in
thunder showers. These storms are
much of the "hit and miss" variety and
with us have been mostly miss. Frecraently, Newton Centre, two miles
away, receives a drenching without the
course receiving a drop. When they do
hit, the rain is of a dashing variety
that much of it runs off. The total area
of the fairways, greens, tees and other
arears to be watered gives an estimate
of the amount of water needed.
We then proceeded to the number of
fairway valves needed, the number of
sprinklers to be used. These sprinklers,
"Buckner Super Six", cover the fairways near the pump a circle of a di-

ameter of over 200 feet, and in other
places the standard fairway width of
160 feet and with us throw into the
rough. Wide areas are covered by
laterals. From the above data, the sizes
of pipe are worked out taking into consideration total head, friction loss, etc.
Arriving at the pump house, the size
of the pump and H. P. of the motor to
furnish this water was determined.
Having completed all this work, the
lines of the pipe were staked out. These
go through the centre of each fairway.
We started operations on the 28th of
June. We employed thirty of the older
caddies for the work.
Mr.
Miller
furnished a man, Mr. John S. McCoy,
to supervise the laying of the pipe, the
building of the pump house and installation of the pump and laying out the
system. It is largely
due to his
efficient work and untiring efforts that
we have a fine irrigation system.
We used a champion sod cutter, pulled
by a Fordson tractor, to remove the sod.
This removes sod a foot wide for the
ditch. For six inch pipe, we removed
two strips and for smaller pipe one
strip. The strips were cut into convenient lengths to handle, and laid back
six feet from the ditch. The ditches
were dug by hand and varied in depth,
"all pipe being pitched to drain," from
2-4 ft.
Ths pipe used was Universal castiron pipe of the bell and spigot type
which bolts together. We used six carloads of pipe, over four miles in all. The
size of the pipe was six, four, and three
inch. Much of the old water system,
two and one half, two, and one and one
half inch pipe was in good condition and
was used for laterals and runs to
greens, The new pipe came in six foot
lengths and was convenient to handle.
It was trucked from the freight cars in
a ton and a half Ford dump trucks. The
fairways being hard, the pipe was
dropped along the ditch without injuring the turf.
Starting' at the pump house, the sod
was cut, the ditch dug, the pipe laid,
the ditch backfilled, the backfill puddled
in and tamped and the sod relaid. Two
small boys kept the sod watered while
it was out and watered it after it was
relaid before tamping sod in place.
The crew was divided into two men
cutting sod, one man cutting it into
strips, two men lifting sod, two boys
watering; a ditch digging gang, a piping gang, divided as follows: one man
washing the bell and spigot ends of the

pipe with a steel brush and kerosene
and seeing that the inside was clean,
three men laying pipe, "the bell" end
was painted with red lead and the bolts
put in; two men tightening bolts with
ratchet wrenches. After a day of laying pipe, the ends were capped and city
pressure turned on through a snap
valve to test for leaks. Great care was
taken that each length had the proper
pitch to drain. A level was used on each
length of pipe. Every 120 ft. on fairways near the pump house and 117 ft.
and 102 ft. further away, a snap valve
is placed. The pipe is bossed on the side
and tapped one and one half inches. The
valve is put on with a swing joint, a!
close nipple is screwed into the pipe, an
elbow screwed on laying sideways, a
street elbow screwed into the elbow
looking-up and the distance from the
top of the street elbow to the surface
of the soil measured, subtract the
length of the valve, screw a nipple the
proper length into the street elbow and
screw the valve on top, bringing the top
of the valve slightly below the surface
of the soil. By this method, tractor
wheels passing over the valve spring it
without breaking it off. One man was
constantly employed putting in valves.
After the pipe was laid and tested,
the clean-up gang backfilled the trench,
puddled the fill, swept the sides of the
ditch and relaid the sod and tamped it
down; and last but not least, we had a
•water boy with a bucket and dipper.
The site for the pump house was
placed near the pond on the fourth
hole. We started to dig and at a depth
of five feet struck quick sand and a
spring which delivered about 400 gallons a minute. As we wished to go down
ten feet, we had our work cut out. We
hired two motor diaphragm pumps, put
down shoring and built a tight box of
matched plank 12 x 12 which was
jettied down 5 ft. below where we
wanted the bottom and started to pump
and dig again. The last foot was a slow
tedious job, we could not get a solid
bottom. We filled fertilizer bags with
sand and as fast as we put them in,
down they would go, but finally we got
a bottom of sand bags, covered them
over with a large piece of canvas and
pored a truck load of ready mixed concrete, a foot thick on the canvas, spread
it out and let the water come up again.
We let the concrete set three days,
pumped the pit dry and built the forms
for the foundation, the two pumps
working constantly. The steel reenforce-

ment was wired in, bottom, sides and
top. Two 10 inch beams were placed
across the top to support pump and
motor. These had forms built around
them and are completely encased in
concrete. We then pored the foundation
bottom, sides and floor all at once and
let the pit fill with water again. Two
days following, we removed the outside
forms and the third day started the two
diaphragm pumps to pump the pit dry
in order to remove the inside forms,
but we had too much water coming in
and could not lower it a foot. We then
proceeded to put a concrete block
house on top of the foundation and a
roof and installed the pump and motor.
The big pump lowered the water in five
minutes and we removed the inside
forms, cleaned out the pit, put in three
bronze screens, one m mesh and two Vs
mesh to keep out rubbish or any small
objects.
The pump is a Sterling vertical
centrifugal stage deep well pump with
special bronze impellers. It is driven by
a thirty horse power United States
Motor and has a maximum capacity of
600 gallons per minute. It gives us
sufficient pressure to operate eight
sprinklers on the first nine and six on
the last nine. When we install a
booster pump (which is on the job but
not installed yet), we can operate
eight on the last nine as well. This does
not mean sixteen sprinklers at a time
as we only use eight.
The working schedule is four fairways a night. We number each valve
starting at the tee and going toward
the green. The third fairway has six
valves, the fifth, seven, the second, ten,
and the sixth, eight. The man puts a
sprinkler in one and two valves in each
of these fairways at eight o'clock; at
nine o'clock, he shifts them to three and
four; at ten o'clock to five and six; and
at eleven o'clock No. 6 fairway will be
watered. He will put one sprinkler in
No. 7 valve on No. 5 fairway, shift to
No. 7 and 8 in the sixth, shift to No. 7
and No. 8 in the second and put the
sprinklers from No. 3 fairway in No.
finishing
at
midnight
with
seven
9 and No. 10 on the second fairway,
sprinklers operating. In
very
dry
weather, when we let them run two
hours, he worked a correspondingly
longer time. We can water the whole
course in four nights. At three o'clock
in the morning, he puts on the greens'
sprinklers, one No. 6 Buckner covering
the whole green at one setting. The day

crew takes them off at seven o'clock in
the morning.
There are a thousand and one small
items which might be put into this already too lengthy article. The digging
of a ditch through the centre of each
fairway is certainly a wonderful help
in mapping out a fairway improvement
program.
I have put in one of the most strenuous summers of my life but it was
worth it.
THE FUTURE OF OUR CLUB

As we think back over the life of our
club, nearly ten years now, it is indeed
possible that we may feel that we have
accomplished much, that we have carved
for ourselves a small niche in the Golf
wall here in New England. We can
point with some pride to our membership, which has increased almost yearly,
until it is now over a hundred. We are
pleased to think of the many times we
have
cooperated
with
other
golf
agencies, with experiment
stations,
with individuals working for the good
of the game. We relish the thought of
friendships made, of good times had together. We remember fine speakers,
tine programs held at our Winter meetings, fine courses played and examined
at our Summer meetings.
Yes! We are proud of what we have
accomplished. But are we now to sit
back, to rest on our laurels? Or are we
to strive anew to do more to help ourselves and Golf here in New England?
There are at present hundreds of
greenkeepers here in New England who
are not members of our organization,
mostly because they are situated at too
great distance from our meeting1 points.
Some of these have their own sectional
organizations. There should be an honest effort to tie these sectional organizations to our club, in such a way that
the cost to each individual member
would be small, but in such a manner
that they would be members, even if
under a special classification, of the
Greenkeepers Club of New England.
Provided that any of these sectional
group cared to join with us, as "Sectional members" shall we say, there should
be at least one meeting each year to
which all members, regular and sectional could be invited, and at which a
strong program could be presented. The

cost to each sectional member should be
small; possibly he should have no vote
because of this, but he should receive
the N E W S L E T T E R monthly with news
of the club, and he should be invited to
contribute to its columns.
We are strongly of the opinion that
all the sectional organizations, and all
greenkeepers outside, provided that
they fulfil the other requirements of
our organization, should be tied in with
us to form a strong organization. We believe that the future of this club is
governed to a large extent by whether
we rest on our laurels, or go ahead and
try to cooperate with our fellows at
more distant parts of our section by
offering them a part of our organization.

NOTICE

(Sent out by the Mass Golf Assoc.)
August 21, 1933
TO OUR M E M B E R CLUBS:
We quote below a notice received from
the United States Golf Association relative to the National Industrial Recovery Act:
"The United States Golf Association
has received a great many requests
from golf clubs for advice as to the application of the National Industrial Recovery Act to golf clubs and their employees. It accordingly submitted the
question to its general counsel, Mr.
Livingston Piatt of New Yosk City. The
substance of Mr. Piatt's opinion, now
received is i
'Section 1 of Title I of the National
Industrial Recovery Act is the Declaration of Policy of the Law. I t is apparent from this that its provisions are
aimed at those engaged in industry,
trade and commerce.
A Golf Club that is not operated for
profit does not fall within any of these
classifications. The compulsory provisions of the Act do not apply because
such a Club is not engaged in interstate
or foreign commerce. And the voluntary
provisions are inapplicable because a
Golf Club of such character is not
operated commercially or as an industry
or trade. There is no possibility of
business
competition
between
such
Clubs, so there is no need for a protecting Code.'
This Association wishes to make entirely clear its belief that such clubs as

,5

NEWSLETTER

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aid the recovery movement by signing
the voluntary agreement. It is, however,
common knowledge that in the case of
many golf clubs an increase in operating expenses would result in insolvency and thus cause individuals presently employed to lose their positions.
No criticism can possibly attach to
to clubs so situated which do not sign
the voluntary agreement."
Charles H. Cross,

The scoring was high on the whole.
Mike had the greens on the keen side,
and the best putter noted was the new
champ, who seemed to sink plenty.
We wonder what Emil did with the
pink silk??!
The demonstration of a Buel Perforator hitched to a Worthington Scout attracted an interested crowd before
lunch. This hook-up appeared to do the
job well, and should be investigated by
any club having these two separate
pieces of equipment.

President.
Henry A. Wentworth,
Secretary-Treasurer.

SEPTEMBER

MEETING

The September meeting was held at
the New Bedford Country Club, North
Dartmouth, Mass. on September 11th.
The annual club championship was
played, and won by Emil Masciocchi of
Oak Hill Country Club, Pitchburg,
Mass. with a gross of 78. Walter Howe
of Wellesley was runner-up with a
gross of 85. Net prizes were awarded as
follows:
Class
1st
2nd
3rd
4th

A:
net,
net,
net,
net,

Class
1st
2nd
3rd
4th

B:
ne, T. Mattus
net, ,J. Sullivan
net, C. O'Keefe
net, C. Treat

T. Swanson . . . . 87-15-72
H. Darling
98-22-76
R. Peckham
90-13-77
E. Stephenson . . 96-18-78
94-28-66
96-2&70
110-38-72
107-30-77

Special prize for blind bogie, which
was 79, was won by M. O'Grady and M.
McDonough, tied. Prize for most 4's
was won by E. Masciocchi, with 13 4's.
A special prize in Class B. was won by
J . Latvis, and the high gross was won
by M. Braga with 128.

The Greenkeepers Club is deeply indebted to the New Bedford Club for the
very fine hospitality extended during
the day, and to President Cherry and
others who donated prizes. We also were
pleased that Mr. Cherry was present,
and personally welcomed the club to
New Bedford.

The Board of Directors met at the
Braeburn Country Club on September
25th. Among the business transacted
was the program of the annual greenkeeper-pro tournament to be held at the
Charles River Country Club on October
2nd.
Jim McCormack reports that one
course in New Hampshire is starting
new nurseries of his Unicorn bent, with
the goal of all greens in time to be of
that strain.
Most of the boys around would like
an explanation of the "scald" that was
general on most courses over the last
week-end in August.
The new hoseless water system for
the fairways on the 27 holes at the
Country Club, Brookline is now being
installed. I t is expected that this system
will be completed this Fall.
Fall work at Braeburn is to include
some new drainage lines, resodding
several tees, and rebuilding of the rear
of the second green. This latter is now
underway.
Ted Swanson has his gang at Bear
Hill busy in its spare time taking rocks
out of fairways. Ted also says that he
may rebuild the fourth green using sod
grown in his nursery this past year of
the Green Section strain of velvet,
No. 14276.
The Rhode Island Greenkeepers Association held its September meeting on
the 25th at the Montaup Country Club,
Portsmouth, R. I.
What are your ideas for the coming
Winter months? Send your thoughts
to Chairman Mitchell of the Entertainment Committee.

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