ents of their efforts to assert themselves,
they pine away and finally disappear. But there will be others always
coming to take their places, especially in the country, and their
kindred growing in the pastures and by the roadside will ripen seed each
season to be scattered broadcast by the wind. This being the case, the
impossibility of entirely freeing a lawn from weeds by uprooting them or
cutting them off will be readily apparent. One would have to spend all
his time in warfare against them, on even a small lawn, if he were to
set out to keep them from growing there. Therefore about all one can do
to prevent large weeds from becoming unsightly is to constantly curb
their aspirations by mowing them down as soon as they reach a given
height.

The Dandelion and the Plantain are probably the worst pests of all,
because their seeds fill the air when they ripen, and settle here,
there, and everywhere, and wherever they come in contact with the ground
they germinate, and a colony of young plants establishes itself. Because
the Burdock and Thistle attempt to develop an up-reaching top it is an
easy matter to keep them down by mowing, but the Dandelion and Plantain
hug the soil so closely that the mower slips over them without coming in
contact with their crowns, and so they live on, and on, and spread by a
multiplication of their roots until they often gain entire possession of
the soil, in spots. When this happens, the best thing to do is to spade
up the patch, and rake every weed-root out of it, and then reseed it. If
this is done early in spring the newly-seeded place will not be
noticeable by midsummer.

We frequently see weed-killers advertised in the catalogues of the
florist. Most, if not all, of them will do all that is claimed for them,
but--they will do just as deadly work on the grass, if they get to it,
as they do on the weed, therefore they are of no practical use, as it is
impossible to apply them to weeds without their coming in contact with
the sward.

Ants often do great damage to the lawn by burrowing under the sward and
throwing up great hummocks of loose soil, thus killing out large
patches of grass where they come to the surface. It is a somewhat
difficult matter to dislodge them, but it can sometimes be done by
covering the places where they work with powdered borax to the depth of
half an inch, and then applying water to carry it down into the soil.
Repeat the operation if necessary. Florists adve