Lawn mower

“ I ardently love pushing the lawn mower, and if, occasionally, I allowed the grass to grow rather long, it was only because I was saving the pleasure of cutting it, as a child saves the icing of its cake for the last sweet bite. ”

“ I will, therefore, acting upon the advice of my royal physician, close this rake out, since the failure of the Northwestern Car Company, at 50 cents on the dollar.
Also one lawn-mower, only used once. At that time I cut down what grass I had on my lawn, and three varieties of high-priced rose bushes. It is one of the most hardy open-air lawn-mowers now made. It will outlive any other lawn-mower, and be firm and unmoved when all the shrubbery has gone to decay. ”

“ Every spring the lawn should be firmed by means of a roller, or, if the area is small, by means of a pounder, or the back of a spade in the hands of a vigorous man. The lawn-mower itself tends to pack the surface. If there are little irregularities in the surface, caused by depressions of an inch or so, and the highest places are not above the contour-line of the lawn, the surface may be brought to level by spreading fine, mellow soil over it, thereby filling up the depressions. The grass will quickly grow through this soil. ”

“ The lawn will ordinarily produce a heavy crop of weeds the first year, especially if much stable manure has been used. The weeds need not be pulled, unless such vicious intruders as docks or other perennial plants gain a foothold; but the area should be mown frequently with a lawn-mower. The annual weeds die at the approach of cold, and they are kept down by the use of the lawn-mower, while the grass is not injured.
It rarely happens that every part of the lawn will have an equal catch of grass. ”

“ I got the rake, shovel, spade, hoe, hand cultivator, lawn mower, trowel, and a couple of things you lift young plants with and assembled myself on the lawn to put in a good day's work. With the rake I started to rake off the side yard, and got about halfway through when I discovered that the lawn needed mowing. Halfway through with the mowing job my eye spotted certain thick spots of weeds, and so I started weeding. ”

“ Every year I used to send my lawn mower to a "tinker" who charged me one dollar and twenty-five cents for sharpening it. I learned one day and it made me sad, that a lawn mower properly cared for keeps itself sharp. Any boy who is strong enough to run a lawn mower ought to be smart enough to take care of one. He needs to know how the machine is put together, what parts do the work and where the wear comes on the parts. The directions which come with a good machine are worth reading. The man who sells the mower may not be able to explain any part you don't understand. ”

“ Even if the lawn is very steep, it may be better to make a gradual slope than to cut the place in two with a Terrace. A Terrace makes a place look smaller. It is always difficult to make and to keep in repair. The surface is not readily cut with a lawn mower. Unless the sod is very dense, the upper corner tends to wash off with the rains and the foot tends to fill in. Nature does not have straight banks unless they are rock. The illustration in the margin shows how it is possible to treat a sloping lawn. ”

“ Be regular in your attention to the lawn. Do not let the grass get so tall that the mower will not do a good job in cutting it. This necessitates mowing at regular intervals. If you mow only once a week, I would advise the use of the rake, as long grass-clippings are always unsightly because they remain on top of the sward, while short clippings from frequent mowing sink into it, and are soon out of sight. ”

“ If the soil [Pg 265] has been prepared as above, there is no need to use a foster crop of oats or barley, as is done in seeding down meadows. Roll the lawn after seeding and also after heavy rains as soon as the surface dries. Shortly after the grass appears, begin to run the lawn-mower over it, so as to cut weeds or native grasses that may be gaining a foothold. Watering is dangerous, unless carefully and regularly done during the summer, the evening being the best time. Merely wetting the surface by sprinkling encourages shallow rooting and therefore rapid drying out. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Careful attention to the small details of keeping the road surface well smoothed, the side lines straight and the grass and weeds mowed, will add wonderfully to the pleasure of traveling on any highway. It is not the intention to have the grass smoothed with a lawn mower—however, with the horse-drawn and motor driven mowers now available that would not be impossible, and the road would look all the better for such clipping—but to have it mowed two or three times a season to give the grass a chance to overcome ugly weeds. ”

“ I mowed my lawn, and then pushed a street-car around in the afternoon to relax my over-strained muscles. I will sacrifice this lawn-mower at three-quarters of its original cost, owing to depression in the stock of the New Jerusalem gold mine, of which I am a large owner and cashier-at-large.
Will also sell a bright new spade, only used two hours spading for angle-worms. This is a good, early-blooming and very hardy angle-worm spade, built in the Doric style of architecture. Persons desiring a spade flush, and lacking one spade to “fill,” will do well to give me a call. ”

“ Then Uncle Peter ran home and told Aunt Martha that Cinders, our bulldog, had tried to bite him.
The national emblem of the commuter is the lawn-mower.
The lawn-mower was invented originally for the purpose of giving the lawn a quick shave, and because it can't talk like a barber it makes a noise like the fall of Port Arthur.
I remember the first day I decided I would trim the vandyke beard on our lawn. Of course I got all mine, and I got it good. The result will always live in history side by side with the battle of Gettysburg. ”

“ Chadborn, invented a new lawn mower, resulting in the formation of the Chadborn & Coldwell Mfg. Co., at Newburgh, N. Y., with Mr. Coldwell as president, which continued until 1891, when Mr. Coldwell organized the Coldwell Lawn Mower Co., mention of which appears elsewhere in this work. Suffice it to say that their daily output approximates seven hundred complete mowers for each working day in the year and it is the largest plant in the world devoted to the manufacture of these machines.
In this connection it is interesting to note briefly the history of lawn mowers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Keep the soil about it rich, and mow off the suckers that will spring up about the parent plant in great numbers each season, and it will ask no more of you. The chief objection urged against it is its tendency to sucker so freely. If let alone, it will soon become a nuisance, but with a little attention this disagreeable habit can be overcome. I keep the ground about my plants free from suckers by the use of the lawn-mower. They can be cut as easily as grass when young and small. ”

“ When the ground is soft and pliable, this will make the surface smooth, and in proper condition for the lawn-mower to pass over it.
Frequent mowing will thicken the sward. It is not necessary to sow oats, as some do, to shade the ground until the seeds have started, that is an "old fogy" notion, and is now obsolete. ”

“ Thin, worn spots, where it is obvious that no grass has grown for years, should be fortified with a load or two of good top soil, rolled and planted to grass seed. Other spots, usually under shade trees where there is the mossy growth of sour soil, should be sprinkled liberally with lime. Repeated treatments will soon correct this condition and grass can again be made to grow there. As soon as the grass is of proper length begin to cut it with the lawn mower. ”

“ Their leaves die down so early in spring that they would scarcely interfere with the mowing of the grass, if that were desired, but I should not attempt to mow the grass in such places till the season of vernal beauty had quite passed by. Surely it is enough to have a portion of lawn as smooth as a carpet at all times, without sending the mower to shave the [17] “long and pleasant grass” of the other parts of the grounds. It would indeed be worth while to leave many parts of the grass unmown for the sake of growing many beautiful plants in it. ”

“ Where there is an ample water-supply these beds may be elevated a few inches above the lawn to make them more conspicuous; but where the seasons are hot and dry and water must be carried it is better to set them slightly lower than the lawn, so that all the available moisture may be utilised. A few inches of margin must be allowed around the edges of beds on the lawn so that the mower may run close to the beds without injuring the plants, though even then it will be best to use the lawn-shears. ”

“ A neglected lawn involves an amount of labour in the semi-annual cleaning of spring and fall out of all proportion to the results, while a lawn well cut and raked is more easily cared for with each recurring year, the grass growing clean and straight, and the rake and mower passing freely and easily through it. ”

“ Use water liberally, and keep on doing so until rain comes or the plants have taken hold of the moister soil below with their delicate feeding-roots.
I would not advise mowing until the grass is at least three inches high. Then clip lightly with [Pg 27] a sharp-bladed mower. Just cut away the top of the grass. To mow close, while the grass is getting a start, is the worst thing you can do. When it begins to thicken up by stooling out, then, and not till then, will you be warranted in setting the mower so that it will cut closely. But never shear the sward, as some do. ”

“ He drags up earth with the grass, which is like making the meadow bleed. But the good mower who does things just as they should be done and have been for a hundred thousand years, falls into none of these fooleries. He goes forward very steadily, his scythe-blade just barely missing the ground, every grass falling; the swish and rhythm of his mowing are always the same. ”

“ The most frequent mowings are needed early in the season, when the grass is growing rapidly. If it is mown frequently—say once or twice a week—in the periods of most vigorous growth, it will not be necessary to rake off the mowings. In fact, it is preferable to leave the grass on the lawn, to be driven into the surface by the rains and to afford a mulch. It is only when the lawn has been neglected and the grass has got so high that it becomes unsightly on the lawn, or when the growth is unusually luxurious, that it is necessary to take it off. ”

“ Mowing well and mowing badly—or rather not mowing at all—are separated by very little; as is also true of writing verse, of playing the fiddle, and of dozens of other things, but of nothing more than of believing. For the bad or young or untaught mower without tradition, the mower Promethean, the mower original and contemptuous of the past, does all these things: He leaves great crescents of grass uncut. He digs the point of the scythe hard into the ground with a jerk. ”

“ We are, too, not awoke by scythe whetting at four o’clock in the morning, to secure the dew upon the grass, as the dry part of the day is perhaps the best for the use of the mowing-machine.
There is, then, no excuse for weeds or bunchy grass with a mowing-machine, as the whole operation, as here described, is done in less time than was formerly occupied in the scythe in mowing alone.
4. Evenness in height is a matter of importance for the lawn; for if we have grasses together, some of which make three inches of growth while the majority are growing but one inch, the whole look uneven and ugly. ”

“ In the judicious use of the mower lies one secret of a close sward. During severe winter weather the implement may not be wanted for several weeks, but as spring advances the ragged plant should have attention, and the necessity for more frequent cutting will be evident, until in warm, moist weather, twice a week, and possibly, for a brief period, every other day, may not be too often. No rigid law can be laid down on this point. The grass should never wear a neglected appearance, nor should the work on any account be postponed to a more convenient season. ”

“ When noon came George was tired and heated, and he gladly remained in the house after dinner. Here he found his favorite encyclopedia and was soon hunting up the history of the invention of the mower. He was surprised to learn [Pg 118] how short a time it had been in use. From the beginning of history the crooked sickle and the straighter scythe had been almost the only tools used for cutting grass and grain. Not until about the middle of the present century had practical mowing machines come into use. But now, except on very small or rocky farms, the horse mower is an absolute necessity. ”

“ For this purpose, it is evident that slow growing grasses, the roots of which will retain permanent possession of the soil, and which are sufficiently succulent not to be burnt up when closely mown in hot weather, are preferable to those which grow rapidly and produce an abundant crop of herbage, particularly as the roots of the last kind are generally easily withered up in dry weather. Very fast-growing grasses are indeed exceedingly annoying to the possessor of a small lawn, as they require constant mowing and are thus a constant source of expence. ”