TURF COMMS V - 5 , I -JAN- e, 'Q^ PURPOSE: To pass on what we learn willingly and happily to others in the profession so as to improve turf conditions around the country. LIGHT WEIGHT FAIRWAY MOWERS (continued from Vol. 4, Issue 9) - I had the good fortune to be at one club where Jacobsen's prototype for the LF-100 (a 5-gang) was demonstrated. The mechanic at that club looked it over and was quite impressed. This club had a good mix of red, orange and green colored equipment. I therefore assume he was reasonably free of bias. The superintendents observing the demonstration appeared to be reasonably impressed. The only negative comment I heard was in regards to the fact that this machine was bits and pieces of other Jacobsen equipment. A fact that is not all negative to my way of 
thinking. A recent report from the Northeast indicates that this 
machine is gaining acceptance and is in competition with Lesco's 500 unit. At present be it Jacobsen, John Deere, Lesco, Ransome, or Toro -
superintendents seem to be in agreement - there is no best light weight fairway mower!! But, for superior fairways there is a definite need. Be prepared to compromise when selecting the mower for your course. JAME OBTAINS MASTERS - My wife, Jane, completed requirements for her masters degree in science education last month. She'll receive her diploma at the University of Texas at Dallas on January 14th. She found obtaining the degree, although a long road, easier work than teaching ninth and tenth graders physical science. TURFCQMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publisher: Douglas T. Hawes, Ph D Certified Professional Agronomist Specializing in Golf Course Maintenance Consulting 2408 Roundrock Trail Piano, Texas 75075 (214) 867-0176 Subscription cost is $15. 
address. Send Checks to Doug Hawes at the above JEFF OBTAINS BACHELORS - My son, Jeff, also completed requirements for his degree in business (personnel and labor relations) at the University of North Texas in December. His graduation was Dec- 17th. He went through the ceremony not quite sure whether he had successfully completed his requirements or not. He did know that he won the University's Bridge Club tournament - priorities! Anyone deed a young business major with 
great verbal and thinking skills? TREES AND SHRUBS - Do you need a good book on trees, shrubs and perennial ground covers? Take a look at "Know It & Grow It 'II* by Carl E. Whitcomb. This second edition (revised 1985) is an improvement over the first. Which was a good text for identification and plant selection for use in landscaping. This book is particularly suited for those of us in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakotas but, also very good for the states 
to the east of this line. Dr. Whitcomb has lived and worked in Kansas, Oklahoma and Florida. For each plant he includes notes on where tree is native to, its size, form, texture, leaves, stem, flowers, fruit, 
color, propagation, culture, pests, cultivars, additional notes, and 3 to 5 pictures. The pictures often show flower, fruit, bark, leaves and general shape. Price, including mailing, is $37.50. Send order and check to Lacebark Publications, Rt. 5, Box 174, Stillwater, OK 74074. READERSHIP - As of the December, '88 issue there were 134 issues of Turfcomms mailed. These were sent to 27 states- Four states were in double digits: TX-28, KS-14, NE-13, CO-12. For your information readership is broken into four different categories: golf course superintendents - 88, related industry personnel -22, editors of newsletters or magazines - 17, relatives & friends 
- 7. Some included in the Superintendents category were also editors, some were owners, some were municipal park 
administrators with golf course responsibilities. GASOLINE Š Do you have an underground storage tank for gasoline or diesel fuel at your maintenance building? If the answer is yes then read the Golf Course Management article in the November, 1988 issue entitled "Understanding EPA's New Underground Storage Tank Regulations". Then send for the free copy of "Musts for USTs: A User's Guide to Regulations for Underground Storage Tank 
Systems." You won't need to read the whole 40 pages but, those regulations do effect your golf course! AND HOW! Š WOW! EDITOR ACCEPTS TEACHING POSITION - I will teach courses -Fulltime in the Horticultural Science Program at Grayson County College for the Spring Semester. The position was previously held by Perry Turnbow. Grayson College is 50 plus miles north of 2408 Roundrock Trail and just west of Dennison and Sherman, TX. Grayson offers both a GOLF COURSE AND TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT and a LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND MAINTENANCE CURRICULUM- The Golf Course and Turfgrass Management is one of two offered in Texas at two year schools. The other is located in Snyder (west of Abilene & SE of 
Lubbock). Out of state tuition is reasonable and housing is relatively inexpensive if you should be interested in sending a student. We have students I am told from several states. Will I continue to edit and publish Turfcomms? YES! Will I continue consulting? YES! My schedule will be somewhat 
restricted, Except for weekends I will not be available for much consulting till the week of March 12th. I will then be available May 7th thru the 31st. Consulting visits after May 31st will depend upon whether Grayson College and myself agree to continue the relationship. POTASSIUM - There is a new, to me anyway, product on the market that should make applications of this nutrient easier (safer). This is a sulfur-coated potassium sulfate 0-0-39. It is available in several different prill sizes including a "micro-size" for greens. This is well worth considering in the western states where the 31V. sulfur would also be of value. The sulfur coat should allow for two and perhaps three pound applications/M of potassium to greens without danger of burning. The product is manufactured by Pursell Industries, P.O. Box 540, Sylacauga, AL 35150, phone 1 800 422-4248. Check with your local distributor to see if they are carrying it or call the 800 number for distributors in your area. As one who has recommended a lot of supplemental potassium applications I'm glad to see such a product available. Consider giving it some trials on your nursery this year with possible use on greens next year. IMAGE - Mr. Wallace Menn at the TX Turfgrass Field Day, 8/88 said that Image, the nutsedge herbicide for use in warm season grasses, gives post emerge control of field sandbur. Mr. Menn urged users to be careful with Image around shallow rooted trees such as Chinese Tallow. % TURF TECH By Jonathon L. Scott C6CS * Now that Santa has brought all of you new computers to play with, I can skip the basic stuff and get into some real "power user" information. Right? No, I'm not about to do that. I'm about as far away from being a "power user" right now as you can get. Since I have assumed my new role as a gypsy consultant, I have had to leave most of my beloved "toys" back at the club. No more PS2, no more Kavouris weather service, no more Maxi IV, no more...well, you get the picture. They say you can never go home, but here I am with my trusty Apple lie pounding out this page and remembering that "power" is not all there is to computing. We all need a little humbling now and then. Having now defined the role of the CPU (Central Processing Unit), we now move on to the next component necessary in any system, the disk drive. There are several different types of drives, but they all perform the simple function of recording information from your computer or someone else's so that it may be accessed at a later date. This information can be in the form of a program such as word processing or it could be the actual text you typed with the program. The three basic types of drives are tape, floppy, and hard. Each has a use in a system, but you don't necessarily need all three. There is a fourth, more sophisitcated type of drive using laser opticals, similar to a CD player, called optical, which is very expensive and holds a gigantic amount of information. We will be concerned with 
only the first three. The tape drive was the first storage device used with computers. You have all seen the large computers with whirling tape reels, I'm sure. This was not practical for PC's and a way to reduce the size had to be found, hence the cassette. Cassettes and larger tape devices are still used for some computer applications, mainly back-up to hard drive information. Tapes are slow and difficult to access information on, and are not recommended for daily usage. The floppy disk was the answer to quicker access and easier storage. It is essentially a flat, magnetic disk, similar to tape, which whirls beneath a tape head according to instructions from the computer. Information can be randomly placed and accessed on the disk by a complex address system governed by the computer's operating system or program. There are many different sizes of floppies, but the most popular are 5 1/4" and 3 1/2". The 5 1/4" are limited to about 760 K of storage (though some are higher) and are flexible. The 3 1/2" are now surpassing 2 megabytes and could go as high as 20 meg. These disks are contained in a ridgid, plastic case and are more durable. I suggest having a system with one of each size drive to insure compatabi1ity with existing programs. Next month we'll look at hard drives.