Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1880 — kentucky Blue-Grass Lawns. [ARTICLE]

kentucky Blue-Grass Lawns.

How to secure a good stand of Hue-grass on the lawn is an interesting question to many Aimers and villagers. Everbody knows what a splendid lawn Hue-grass (poo prataww) makes—in Act that is the only grass fit for a lawn. I have peen many persons stop and gase in wonder and admiration at the beautiful green carpet spread over our lawn, where two years before were only weeds and brush. Last year one of these admirers, tempted by its. beauty, called on me “to learn what magic I used to transform the wilderness into a garden.” He informed me that he had been striving for five years to make the bhu gram grow on his lawn—had sown pecks of seed, and all he had to show was a few straggling patches of blue-grass, red-top and clover; the remainder weeds and bare ground. I enlightened him, and he now joyfolly informs me that his lawn is nearly complete, and will be perfect after this year.

Doubtlees many have wrestled with thia prHitan as unsuccessfolly, and would be delighed to know a way eat of the difficulty. Let us suppose your lawn is in a very bad condition—covered with weeds, timothy or prairie groan. The first thing in order is to break it up and thoroughly pulverise with .the harrow. Having made it level and smooth as possible, go where there is a patch of Hue-grass—you may have to go a long distance, but no matter; I went eight miles forours—and git a load of sods. Cut than about two inches thick. When vou get home take a piece of plank and a sharp spade, lay the aoda on the plank and cut them into pieces about four inches uare. Draw a lino across your lawn and ant the pieces of sod, one to four feet mart each way, according to your supply of sod, putting them j ust below the 1 level of the surface and pressing each piece firmly down with the foot. Now aOW a light sprinkling of rye over all, and roll with a heavy roller. If you have no roller, Ijo over it with a garden rake and smooth It down. Should the ground happen to be very dry, pour a little water on each sod as you plantit. t .

In a month or six weeks the grass and rye Win be high enough to mow, or a few sheep or calves may be turned on to grace it down. The trampling of sheep and calves will cause the Hue-gram to spread much foster than the mowing. The chief object to be kept in view is—keep eoetyUfoy sfown ! If you allow weeds or anything to grow over four inches high the blue-grass will cease to spread. Two yens of close grazing or mowing will give the blue-grass entire possession, and kill out everything else. FLOWEB-BKDB AMONG BLUB-GBASS. . I have shown how to obtain a splendid lawn of blue-grass. But it is no sooner secured and duly admired, than the ladies of the household are seized with an intense desire to embellish it with flower-beds. Of course this is perfectly proper. The beds are spaded, flowers planted, and then comes tribulation. Blue-grass delights in rich mellow soil, and immediately, long white shoots dart under the bed, come up among the flowers, and in spite of dipping and picking, before the summer is over the beds will be foil of roots and half covered with grass. It robs the soil of the moisture and strength so indispensible to a flow-er-bed, and instead of being a thing of beauty, the bed is only a source of disappointment. I will show the ladies how this difficulty may be overcome. A flowerbed ona grass lawn, to give the best results, should not be lees than six feet wide at its narrowest >art. Eight by twelve makes a fine bed. to keep the grass out, place around the bed common six-inch fence boards, letting them down until the upper edge is just below the level of the ground. Fit the corners as close as possible, or the grass roots will creep through. Pack the soil firmly on both sides of the and the thing is done. Blue-grass roots will not penetrate the bed under six-inch boards, and may very easily be kept from creeping over. In such abed the soil will keep moist, and flowering plants will thrive as finely as in a vegetable garden. If the boards are painted with hot gas tar before being put down they will last for many - years.

Al3-y ear-old in Macon, Ga., weighs two hundred and one pounds. t Of forty-six public officers in Dubuque county, lowa, thirty-eight are Irishmen. Deadwood is four thousand eight hundred and twenty-three feet above the sea. Sioux City people have organized sa tree-planting association in hopes of beautifying their town. A nugget of copper, weighing one hun-. dred and nine pounds, was found near Roxbury, Wia, the other day. A woman in Marshalltown, lowa, has sued a man in a neighboring town for SIO,OOO damages for breach of promise. Thomas] Hughes of Troy, N. has been arraigned on the charge of repeated attempts to outrage his own daughter. A Litchfield, Mich., man has “jumped the town,” taking with him a 16-year-old girl, and leaving a wife and seven children. The meanest man in Michigan lives at Grand Rapids. He stole the crape off a door-bell while the corpse was still in the house. . j A peach orchard of two hundred trees at Ganges, Mich., was utterly ruined recently, some miscreant having girdled them all. There is a’prisoner in the Keokuk, lowa, calaboose who is 96 years old. He has been drinking all his fife, and is able to get on as big a oust as ever. A 14-year old youth has just absconded from his parents and home at Oconomowock, WiA, with the ambitious proect of becoming a Texan rover; he took with him SSO and four revolvers.

A man by the name of Daniels, of Swift Falls, Minn., has a dog that supplies the family with fish. He has been known to take out as many as thirty pickerel in a day. He will watch his chance, and when he espies a fish will make a dive and bring it out / A horrible rumor is current at Ypsilanti, Mich., to the effect that a colored woman, just after being delivered of a child, came to the conclusion that she was over-supplied with offspring, and therefore disposed of the latest addition to the flock by cremating it in the stove. A piece of gun-wadding was the means of tracing out a reprobate who shot a neighbors horse in Chickasaw county, lowa. It was a printed piece of paper, and was found to match, so that it could be read, with the wadding of areadyin the hands ofChe suspected One Dennis O’Brien, alias Clifford, of Troy, N. Y, is under arrest for bigamy. The accused, however, insists that, although married to his first wife, he married her while drunk, and that he is only married to wife number two on the European plan. He says he would rathet go to prison for ten years than live with bis first wife again.