Even if you paid a thousand dollars a bushel for your grass seed, and
then spent as much more on the preparation of your land, you could not,
I am sorry to say, escape having weeds.
The thing to do when you have them is to get rid of them, and this is
accomplished only by getting right after them with a persistence
proportionate to the abundance of the weeds. The knife is the only real
weapon for this. After digging out your weeds, sow in grass seed with
the idea of making the grass grow so thick that there will be no place
for the weeds to creep in. Dandelions and plantains are simple matters
that can be handled easily, but where Crab Grass shows up, there is
certainly work ahead to get the best of it. It is a destroyer of the
first rank, a veritable pest. It is an annual that seeds itself each
year and kills out under the first frost, leaving great bald spaces in
the lawn to show where it has been. Even after it has been killed by the
frost its baneful influence is not ended, for it has spread broadcast
its seeds for the next year's crop.
When you find it, dig it out. It means work and lots of it, but it is
the only way to conquer it. Set the blades of the mower low, and after
dragging the grass up with a rake, run the machine over it; and this
should be done early in the year, before July. There is no weed to equal
this as a nuisance.
On newly-made lawns the weeds are easily removed, and they should be
carefully watched so as not to allow them to get too far ahead.
Chickweed is almost as bad as Crab Grass, and when you find the
combination, Crab Grass and Chickweed, the simplest solution is to spade
or plow the place up in the fall and leave it exposed for the winter.
For the broad-leaved varieties of weeds there is a preparation of what
is called sand on the market that I have tried with very good success. I
sprinkle it on the weeds and within an hour afterwards they have
shriveled and turned black.
While it doubtless is very efficient in destroying the top growth, I am
unable to say that it is at all injurious to the roots, and may,
perhaps, even stimulate them to renewed growth the following season.
However, my experience with it was a happy one, for just as soon as the
weeds died down I sowed in grass seed, which quickly germinated.
[Illustration: There is only one sure way of eradicating weeds, and that
is by cutting them out with a knife as soon as they appear. Delay in the
attack will give them time to bring up heavy reinforcements]