AFTER you have your ground made, your seed sown and germinated, your trouble is not all over, for it is a critical period through which to carry the tender grass to a hardy condition.

Young grass should not be cut before it is three inches high, and this means that a scythe should be used in preference to a lawn-mower, as it is difficult to get the blades high enough to allow this length. In cutting for the first time, try to do it on a cloudy day, as this will prevent any possibility of scorching or burning. After a few weeks the grass will have so toughened that it will be benefited by frequent cuttings—even twice a week.

The roller should be used after every cutting, and although it may seemingly be working injury by crushing down the tender grass, it is in reality making sure a solid and compact sod. In the middle of the summer when the weather is very hot, be careful not to crop too close, as the roots are liable to be killed out by the sun.

When cutting your grass you will find it a great saving to have some sort of a grass-catcher on your lawn-mower. One can be made easily, but very handy ones are sold at a small price. They prevent the wear and tear to a lawn that results from the hard raking necessary when not used.

There is a good grass-catcher that fits into the back of all machines; it is very effective and costs about fifty cents. It so effectively catches all the grass that comes from the machine that little raking is afterwards necessary. If you prefer the rake it is best to use a wooden one, as iron teeth do great damage to a heavy sod.

Where the grass is cut frequently the clippings may safely be left on the ground, but heavy grass should be always gathered up.

The Lawn-mower

There are hundreds of makes of lawn-mowers on the market, but of these very few will stand the test of a season's hard usage. These few will be found to be the standard makes of good design, and costing a seemingly high price. When you can get a lawn-mower with a pound of tea you may be sure that it is time to be suspicious, regardless of the pretty paint and ornamentation that makes it a symphony of colors. A good mower means that your lawn will look well after being cut with it, and it also means that the first seemingly high cost will be all that you will be called upon to expend in years to come. Such a mower is practically indestructible.

Once or twice during the season, give it an overhauling. Grass and grit will creep in, and unless it is removed the efficiency of the machine will be greatly reduced.

It sounds like automobile parlance to say "Use good oil," but this really applies equally as strongly to a lawn-mower. Cheap oil is expensive in the long run, as it thickens up and clogs the bearings, and makes it impossible for the mower to do its best work.

This may seem like straining a point to get down to such trivial details, but it is just these little things that go to make up the getting and keeping of a lawn.

The Roller

Next to having good seed to sow, on properly prepared ground, the great essential in lawn-making is a proper kind of roller to use as occasion requires. Few people realize just how important a part a roller plays in the upkeep of any grass area, but it is no exaggeration to say that without one, successful results will be difficult if not impossible of achievement. Use a roller—a heavy roller—on your lawn early in the spring to repair the damage that the freezing and thawing has caused in the winter.

The early rolling levels the surface, packs the earth about the grass roots and makes it possible for them to draw the moisture from deep down in the ground. A roller is to be used often, not once each season. Its consistent use means that you will have fewer weeds, thicker and better colored grass; the disfiguring moles will find the ground too difficult to burrow through, moisture will be retained longer, and a noticeably better condition will be noted throughout the whole lawn.

The old-time stone roller was an instrument of torture, and almost wholly unsuited for lawn work as suggested. There are now on the market dozens of ball-bearing rollers that are very easily handled. The adjustable kind, in which there are compartments to hold either sand or water to vary the weight, is the kind that should be purchased. With it you have a roller light enough to use for seeding, or heavy enough for road work, and the prices are not prohibitive.

The Hose

The hose is a subject to which very little attention is given. Paradoxical as it may seem, all rubber hose is not rubber hose, and because of this many lawns suffer from want of water, because the supposedly rubber hose has proved, when most needed, to be a combination of paper and scrap. A first-quality hose will cost from twenty to thirty cents a foot—a frightful price when comparison is made to the bargain price of four cents a foot. The expensive kind will last for years, and even after it begins to show signs of wear it can be used many years longer by proper repairing. The cheap hose bursts once, and its usefulness is at an end, as the first burst is only a preliminary of total dissolution.

When a good hose bursts it is best repaired by cutting entirely through it and removing the damaged part, and then joining the ends with a little brass sleeve that is easily inserted into each of the severed ends and which has reversed prongs to prevent its slipping out. This is one of the best ready-made menders on the market, and it prolongs the life of a hose for years.

Keep your hose on a reel. Empty it of water before winding up, and never allow it to lie baking in the sun. This latter is a very common fault and is the cause of much good hose being spoiled.

Another seemingly trivial yet important thing is to caution against so fastening the hose to the tap that it pulls away from it at right-angles.

For ordinary purposes the half-inch size of hose is the best. It costs less in the first place, is more easily handled, and the wear and tear is much less than on the larger sizes.

You never see a gardener using any spraying contrivance on the end of a hose. In his thumb and forefinger, which he skillfully moves over the flowing stream, he has a combination of sprayers that can produce the heaviest stream or the finest mist at will. This is to be recommended, but few will care to follow the course of training necessary to acquire the efficiency of the gardener.