In sowing a lawn, the best mixture of grasses that we can recommend for this climate, is a mixture of Red-top and white Clover-two natural grasses found by almost every roadside-in the proportion of three fourths of the former, to one of the latter.
There is a common and very absurd notion current (which we have several times practically disproved), that, in order to lay down a lawn well, it is better to sow the seed along with that of some grain; thus, starving the growth of a small plant by forcing it to grow with a larger and coarser one. A whole year is always lost by this process- indeed more frequently two. Many trials have convinced us that the proper mode is to sow a heavy crop of grass at once, and we advise him who desires to have speedily a handsome turf, to follow the English practice, and sow three to four bushels of seed to the acre. If this is done early in the spring, he will have a lawn-like surface by mid-summer, and a fine close turf the next season. After this, the whole beauty of a lawn depends on frequent mowing. Once a fortnight at the furthest, is the rule for all portions of the lawn in the neighborhood of the house, or near the principal walks. A longer growth than this will only leave yellow and coarser stubble after mowing, instead of a soft velvet surface. A broad-bladed English scythe (to be had at the shops of the seedsman), set nearly parallel to the surface, is the instrument for the purpose, and with it a clever mower will be able to shave within half an inch of the ground, without leaving any marks. To free the surface from worm casts, etc., it is a common practice to roll the previous evening as much as may be mown the next day.
