Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1908 — GRASS CULTURE. [ARTICLE]

GRASS CULTURE.

Forethought and Intelligent Supervision Incur* a Good Lawn. Great care should be taken by the gardener with his lawn. It is the canvas upon which he will paint his flower bed pictures and landscape effects. To be successful he must prepare his canvas well. The first thing is to grade y the ground, smoothing rough surfaces, making proper level stretches and gentle slopes. If possible, the lawn should slope from the house. The grading should be done so as to distribute evenly all surface water, avoiding the formation of little runs which might produce washouts. The soil should be enriched with r liberal supply of well rotted manure. This is essential where the soil Is lacking In humus; otherwise bone meal or other good fertilizer Is useful, and manure often contains the seed of weeds. The ground should be plowed or spaded not less than eight inches deep, removing all the stones and similar material, and the surface made as smooth as possible. Then it is ready for sowing. One of the best mixtures for the lawn is four parts Kentucky blue grass with one part of white, clover, sown not less than five bushels to the acre. Equally good results are usually obtained by the use of redtop In place of the blue grass or with equal parts of redtop and blue grass and a little white clover. When moisture Is plentiful the blue grass forms a softer turf than the redtop. but does not seem to endure drought so well. In shady places the blue grass mixture is best. Nothing but pure seed should be sown. It Is well to be liberal with the seed, not to scatter It too thinly and to reseed portions that come up poorly.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS. Easy to Raise and Profitable if Properly Marketed. Brussels sprouts may be easily grown in the ordinary home vegetable garden. The plant is a close relative of the cabbage and cauliflower, but instead of producing a single head forms a number of small ones in the axils of the leaves, and these heads are called sprouts and are the edible part of the vegetable. The sprouts average one or two inches in diameter. The seed should be sown in the open ground as early as the weather permits. When the plants are three inches high they should be transplanted or thinned out into rows twenty-four to thirty inches apart and about two feet apart in the row. The plants must be well watered after they have been moved. As the small sprouts begin to crowd the leaves should be broken from the stem to give the small heads more room. A few leaves should be left at the top of the stem where the new beads are formed. In warm climates the plants may be left in the open ground all winter, the heads being removed as desired, but in more northern latitudes plants that are well laden with heads are taken up when frost comes and set close together in a pit or cellar or a “cold frame” or bed covered with glass. With a little soil packed about their roots they may in this way be kept all winter, being used when needed. When boiled or stewed with cream they are delicious.

GROWING RHUBARB. A Crop That Pays Well For Vary Little Outlay and Work. The best crop, counting expense of growing and amount of land used, is pieplant. Procure some roots of the Linnaeus variety that is early, tender and, while growing very large, is less acid than many other kinds. Prepare the bunches by putting five or six stalks in a bunch, tying it securely at the butts of stalks and again around the leaves just above the stems; then with a sharp knife cut off a portion of the leaves, leaving about a third of the green leaf on the stalk. It will wilt less quickly with a part' of the leaf on than with the whole leaf or where only the stalk has been left The rows should be six feet apart and plants four feet in row. The only work expended on it is to cultivate two or three times early In the season and hoe it once. In the fall the rows are covered with a mulch of strawy manure. Pull It late in the day, tie and trim the leaves, then pack it in sixty quart berry crates. It does not wilt as much if crowded in tightly. Rhubarb may be made to yield about $35 to S4O an acre per month.

Spraying Potato Vines. The number of sprayings It will be necessary to give potatoes depends somewhat upon the season. If rainy weather prevails it will be necessary to spray more frequently than if it be comparatively dry, not only because the rain will wash the spray material off the vines, but also because damp weather is favorable to the development of the disease. A good general rule Is to begin spraying when the vines are about six inches high and spray every ten days or two weeks throughout the season.—W. J. Green. Alfalfa and Water. To grow alfalfa we must first of all provide a soil which is dry by nature or which is underdrained. If we dig a post hole four feet deep and find water we may know that alfalfa will not grow there. There is an old saying which expresses this, “Alfalfa will npt grow With wet feet’’ Though it seeks water in a deeper soil and the roots penetrate very deeply indeed in an old field, we must not expect it to.-grow where'the water rises to within four feet of the surface.