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This NEWSLETTER is published
monthly by the Greenkeepers Club of
New England, and sent free to its members and their Green's Chairmen. Subscription price ten cents a copy, or a
dollar a year.
GUY C. WEST
Editor
312 Mt. P l e a s a n t St., Fall River, Mass.

HOWARD D. FARRANT Business Mgr.
132 R u s s e t t RcL, W e s t Roxbury, Mass.

November, 1935

Vol. 7, No. 11

We have received a generous response
to our last issue, in which we tried to
point out some of the many sources of
information which the greenkeeper has
at his disposal. It would be impossible
to point out all the sources if we used
every issue for a year, but we will use
part of this issue to add a few suggestions to those in our last issue.
The duties of a greenkeeper are so
varied that he can and must secure
knowledge of many sorts to aid him in
his work. A large amount of knowledge
printed more especially for the farmer,
or the scientist, or for some other field,
will be of interest to him. In this manner, nearly everything which deals with
the soil in its complex whole will interest him. A few bulletins which may
interest in part are:
"Nitrate Assimilation in Soils", Iowa
State Research Bulletin No. 135.
"The Color of Soils in Relation to
Organic Matter Content", Iowa State
Research Bulletin No. 75.
"Some Relations of Green Manures to
the Nitrogen of a Soil", Cornell Univ.
Memoir 115.
"Grades of Peat and Muck for Soil
Improvement", U. S. D. A. Circular No.
290.
"Unproductive Black Soils", Purdue
Univ. Bulletin No. 157.
Of late years many clubs have planted
the areas outside the course with plantations of evergreens, or in some cases
hardwoods. There are many bulletins
which will help the grower of such
plantations. Many bulletins of disease
and insect pests have been issued and
are ready to help. A few such bulletins
are:
"The Dutch Elm Disease", Cornell Extension Bulletin 290.
"Twenty Years Growth of a Sprout
Hardwood Forest in New York", Cornell
Bulletin 465.

"Care of New Tree Plantings", Iowa
State Extension Bulletin No. 127.
"Care and Improvement of the Farm
Woods", U. S. D. A. Farmers' Bulletin
No. 1177.
"Tree Surgery", Farmers' Bulletin
No. 1178.
"Pruning", Farmers' Bulletin No. 181.
If interested in a perennial garden,
read the fine bulletin "Herbaceous
Perennials", issued by the U. S. D. A.
as Farmers' Bulletin No. 1381, and
among many others a fine study of the
Phlox in Bulletin 538 from the Cornell
Univ. Agri. Exp. Station, "History,
Culture, and Varieties of SummerFlowering Phloxes".
ETC. ETC. ETC.
HARTFORD PARK DEPARTMENT'S
N U R S E R Y OF 14276 V E L V E T B E N T

In Goodwin Park, eighteen new
greens are being constructed by the
Hartford Park Department. Velvet
bent was selected to plant on these
greens, because it is without doubt the
best turf grass for putting greens.
There is a decided trend among green
chairmen and greenkeepers to change
their greens over to some strain of velvet bent, and the opportunity to plant
eighteen new greens with this fine grass
was too good to be overlooked. The
14276 strain was chosen because it has:
(1), a high degree of resistance to turf
diseases, especially Brown-patch and
Dollar spot, (2) a beautiful dark green
color, (3) a fine texture and a stiff upright growth, (4) the highest rating at
the U. S. G. A. Turf Gardens, Charles
River Country Club, and at the Rhode
Island Experiment Station, Kingston,
R. I. Fortunately, Mr. George Hollister, Superintendent of Parks, was able
to purchase from Frank Robinson, a
member of our club and a man who
loves to work with turf grasses, 3000
feet of the 14276 to start a nursery of
2 Vi acres.
The nursery is located in the South
Meadows near the Connecticut River, on
a heavy silt loam soil. The land was
plowed, harrowed, and smoothed with a
plank drag in July of this year, and we
started to plant the turf on August 2nd.
F. E. R. A. labor was used to do this
work. Rows were made nine inches
apart and about one and a half inches
deep. To mark the rows, a large homemade "rake" was used. It took six men

__

to operate this "rake", which marked
eight rows at a time. The turf, which
had been cut one inch thick, one foot
wide, and five feet long, was chopped
with meat cleavers into pieces two
inches square. Several experienced
"butchers" from the ranks of the P. E.
R. A. were brought to light during this
operation. The pieces were then planted
about nine inches apart in the rows and
watered immediately. This involved a
great deal of hand work, approximately
840 man hours, which was furnished for
the most part by the F. E. R. A. From
then on it was a case of watering, weeding and fertilizing.
Water is essential. It so happened
that an extended dry spell, which lasted
for three weeks, kept the men busy
watering to keep the small pieces of
turf from drying out. An additional line
was installed to increase the amount of
water, but even so, some of the turf
got pretty brown. However, practically
all of it came back when we got some
rain and a little cool weather to help
out. About the only ill effect of this
drought was to set the turf back a
couple of weeks. In applying water we
tried to get the ground well moistened
to start with, after which it was a case
of going over the entire area as frequently as possible to keep the pieces
of turf fresh and green, much as one
would do in watering a green just
planted with stolons. In our case it was
just impossible to get too much water
on. After the first rain the complextion of the nursery changed over night
as if by magic, which goes to show that
no amount of artificial watering can
compensate for a good natural rain.
Weeding is very important and is responsible for the biggest labor item
after the original planting is done. The
most troublesome weed was creeping
bent. This grass takes hold and spreads
so rapidly that it will over-run the nursery in no time. Other weeds found
were Colonial bent, blue grass, quack
grass, and some clover. There were
several annual weeds, but these were
not difficult to take out. We started
to cultivate between the rows to keep
the weeds down, but found that the men
were not careful enough and the
loosened soil, being crusty, would get
onto the small pieces of 14276, which
would kill out whenever it was covered.
Cultivation was stopped and the men
pulled all the weeds by hand for the
first six weeks, after which the 14276
had made enough growth and was not
so easily covered by the loose soil when

cultivation was resumed. This cultivation was shallow, just enough to chop
the weeds, and was done with small
garden hoes. It was still necessary to
do considerable hand weeding close to
the small pieces of turf. One man did
all of this work and he had to be careful to get every piece of creeping bent
possible. I believe that the 14276 velvet bent, when planted on the greens,
will crowd out all other turf grasses,
except other strains of velvet, and this
includes creeping bent. Yet, if too
much creeping bent is allowed to grow
in the nursery with the 14276, it will
be chopped up with it and planted on
the greens. Here it will make a more
rapid growth than the 14276 and a
spotty growth will be evident for a
few years. We want to give the 14276
as little competition as possible so that
a uniform stand can be obtained quickly.
A ton of 7-9-2 fertilizer has been applied so far. The first application was
made one month after the turf had
been planted. Only 500 pounds were
put on at one time, and the applications
were from ten days to two weeks apart,
depending upon weather conditions.
The spreading was done by hand, and
except for the first time, was done in
the rain, which eliminated the necessity
of watering.
No disease of any kind has been
noticed so far and no fungicides or insectcides have been applied.
We have taken photographs of the
nursery every month since it was
planted. These show the stages of
growth at set intervals, and are very
interesting. At the end of two months
the pieces of turf had increased about
twice their original size, and after
three months had tripled in size. No
stolons or rooting nodes were noticeable except those on the under side,
which were short and close to the parent
plants, until the end of the second
month. From then on, however, numerous short stolons were evident, originating from all sides and from the tops
of the tussocks also, for we allowed the
turf to develop naturally without cutting. On the 14276 these stolons do
not grow as rapidly nor as profusely as
they do on creeping bent. This fact,
which makes it necessary to allow more
time for development in the nursery,
is one of the desirable features of this
turf for putting greens as compared to
creeping bent, for it seems that this
characteristic should eliminate some of
the raking on the greens, which is so

essential with creeping bent.
After the nursery was established,
two experiments were tried on a small
scale with some of the 14276. We wondered what results could be obtained
if, instead of chopping the sod into
pieces two inches square, we divided it
into smaller units. Some of the two
inch pieces were therefore broken up
into individual plants. These were
planted in rows as had been done with
the larger pieces and they received the
same treatment. It was very noticeable
that the individual plants spread more
rapidly and sent out stolons much sooner than did the larger pieces. If we
were to plant more of the 14276 and
could do the planting in cool weather
with plenty of water available, we would
undoubtedly use this later method.
On another plot we separated the
clumps into individual plants and
treated them like stolons; i. e., they
were broadcast over the surface, topdressed, and kept moist. In three days
four or five long healthy new roots had
been formed by each plant, and in four
weeks each individual stolon, when
pulled up, held by the new roots formed,
a ball of soil larger than a golf ball.
There is no question as to this 14276

being a vigorous and profuse rooter. It
was necessary to topdress the stolons
a little heavier than would ordinarily
be the case when planting stolons of
creeping bent, on account of the enlarged stems at the base of the individual plants of 14276. As was the case
with the separate plants set out in rows,
the stolons grew very rapidly, and sent
out jointed runners much sooner than
the two inch pieces.
There is an enormous amount of labor
necessary in the propagation of the
14276 velvet bent, and the two largest
items are planting and weeding. Watering and fertilizing are important and
must be done carefully if good results
are expected. However, we believe that ^m^
a nursery of this kind is well worth
while in the Park Department, for an
unlimited supply of this beautiful strain
of velvet bent will always be available.
In the Spring, we will have at least
eight greens ready for planting. The
remaining ten greens will all be planted
during the coming season, and it will
be a great day for us here in Hartford
when eighteen greens of 14276 are
opened for play.
Everett J. Pyle.

Better Grass
will b e y o u r

Reward

Dull
their
keep
You

for keeping keen, sharp cutting edges
o n y o u r m o w e r s a t all t i m e s .
A clean cut heals quickly.
m o w e r s , pinch, b r u i s e a n d split grass blades a n d r e t a r d
g r o w t h . If y o u h a v e " T h e C a r p e n t e r G r i n d e r " y o u c a n
y o u r m o w e r s s h a r p always. Y o u r grass will b e healthier.
will n o t i c e t h e d i f f e r e n c e .

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Every mower, including the engine unit in power mowers, is taken
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Cylinder and bottom knife are reground in a specially constructed machine
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Truck service is maintained for collection and delivery within one
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A GRASS OF POSSIBLE VALUE FOR
DRY OR SANDY FAIRWAYS
Dr. V. T. S t o u t e m y e r

Iowa State College
During a visit to the O'Neill CountryClub of O'Neill, Nebraska in the fall of
1935, Mr. Jess Pults, agrostologist of
the Federal Soil Conservation Service,
called the attention of the writer to a
fine-textured
native annual grass,
S p o r o b o l u s n e g l e c t u s , on the course.
This country club is located in the tall
grass prairie region, and bluegrass and
other standard fairway turf grasses did
not thrive on the dry sandy hills which
cover the course. This difficult problem
for this golf club was finally solved by
the natural seeding of one of the native
annual dropseed grasses, S p o r o b o l u s
n e g l e c t u s , over the area. At the date
of observation several fairways consisted of practically pure stands of this
grass. Only a few scattered patches of
Buffalo grass could be seen.
The playing qualities of this turf
have proven most gratifying to the
members of this club. The turf is of
very fine texture, dense, and not bunchy.
When cut rather high it gives the excellent "brassie lies" which are so desirable.
S p o r o b o l u s n e g l e c t u s is an annual,
but this would not necessarily prove to
be a difficulty if a cultural system were
followed which would allow reseeding.
In some sections of the country, the
fairways, and often the greens as well,
on the courses consist largely of Poa
a n n u a , which reseeds itself each year.
This grass is found growing in sandy or
dry ground.
According to A. S. Hitchcock it is
distributed from Quebec and Maine to
North Dakota, south to Maryland, Tennessee and Texas; also Washington and
Arizona.
There are also a number of very
closely related species of S p o r o b o l u s ,
both annual and perennial, which deserve some trial by those engaged in
turf research. Most of the grasses of
this group are adapted to dry or poor
soils and some of these may have value
for sports turf under difficult situations.
Hovey & Company, well known seed
and golf supply house, formerly of 150
Milk Street, are now located in new
quarters at 130 Broad Street, Boston,
Mass.

ADVERTISERS—ATTENTION!

All copy for the Christmas issue must
be in by December 10th, in order that
this issue can be in the mail and delivered before Christmas.
THE

FROLIC

The November meeting was held as
Ladies' Nite, in the form of a Frolic,
at the Sudbury Town Hall, Sudbury,
Mass. A very fine turkey dinner and
an evening of fun, games, and dancing
under the direction of the Entertainment Committee gave all present an enjoyable time. Some ninety members and
friends attended.
CORRECTION

We are sorry to announce that we
slipped in our proof reading last month
and did not notice the omission of an
"ing" from the "bring" in the second
sentence of the second paragraph of the
Thomas W. Emerson advertisement.
This sentence should have read, "Greenkeepers by bringing this suggestion to
the attention of their committee chairman will be rendering their club a real
service."
Pres. West has announced the Nominating Committee, to prepare a slate of
officers for 1936, to consist of Paul
Wanberg, Paul Hayden, and Joseph
Oldfield.
Rubber-tired tractors are no novelty
now, but rather the accepted thing.
Wheelbarrows are now equipped with
balloons, and fairway mowers are being
tried with rubber tires. What next?
Keep in line with such new improvements; you may not have the opportunity to try them, but keep in touch
with those who do, and if they prove
successful, you will know it, and can
act accordingly.
The New England Toro Co. have recently opened a large retail store in
their establishment at 1121 Washington
Street, West Newton, Mass., with a full
line of tools and supplies for estates
large and small.

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