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 re
paired 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.