scattered evenly over lliu surface and thinly covered with a fine-toothed iron rake, followed by an iron roller. To avoid covering the seed too deeply, the land is sometimes rolled without the |>revious use of the rake.
Small grass-plats are often covered with trans- jilanted turf instead of beginning with the seed. When the grass has grown several inches high, mowing with the lawn-mower is l)eguii and re- I>cated at short intervals. Trenuent mowing and rolling improves the turf. During dry sum- mers, when there is danger of exi«>sing the roots to the drjing action of the hot sun, too frequent mowing is injurious. The lawn should be rolled at least once each sjjring when the weather is moist, for the purpose of compacting the turf. To keep up the fertility of pcrmanint lawns, laml plaster, nitrate of soda, ami hardwood ashes are applied as toj) dressings in the spring or a dress- ing of fine compost is applied in the fall. Con- sult I'liiltd Slates Drixirtincnt of Agriculture yciir-Hool:, 1807 (Washington, 18!)8).
LAWN TENNIS. A modern game resem-
bling in some respects the ancient game of ten-
nis (q.v. ), which in its earliest form seems to
have been played in the open air. The new sport
originated almost simultaneously in England
ami America. Jlajor Winglield reduced it to a
definite form in England in 1874, giving it the
hopelessly classical name of 'sphairistike.' Un-
der the auspices of the -Marylebone Club, rules
were formulated the following year for what
was then definitely known as lawn tennis. The
'hour-glass' court was retained, with the net five
feet high at the posts and four feet in the cen-
tre, and the senicc lines 25 feet from the net,
with covered balls 2i> inches in diameter and
IM: ounces in weight. Before 187G the earliest
form of court was replaced by a rectangular
one, 2G yards long by!l yards wide, the net be-
ing lowered to .3 feet .3 inches and then to 3 feet
in the centre, and the service-line brought 4 feet
nearer tile net. In 187!), when volleying was in-
troduced by the Renshaw brothers, the service-
line was brought one foot nearer the centre, and
the height of the net raised again to 3 feet d
inches, making the advantages of the different
styles of play more cipial. In 1887 the (Eng-
lish) National T.awn Tennis .ssopiation w.is
formed. Erom that time on it has been the gov-
erning body for England and the neighboring
countries, into which the game has spread. The
courts of all countries have the same dimensions;
the following is the oiVicial description of the
American court: The cojirt is 78 feet long and
27 feet wide. It is divided across the middle by
a net, the ends of whidi are attached to two
posts, standing 3 feet outside of the court on
either side. The height of the net is 3 feet G
inches at the posts, and 3 feet in the midille.
Half-way between the side-lines, and parallel
with them, is drawn the half-court line, divid-
ing the space on each side of the net into two
equal parts, the right and left courts. On each
side of the net. at a distance of 21 feet from
it. and parallel with it. are drawn the service-
lines. Two kinds of game are played: 'singles,'
i.e. one person against another: or 'doubles,'
two partners on each side. The choice of sides
of the court and the right to serve first are de-
cided by toss. The players stand on opposite
sides of the net, the player who first ilelivers the
ball being called the server, and the other the
striker out. At the end of the first game the
striker out becomes the server, and so on alter-
nately. The server delivers the ball or service
from the right to the left courts. It must drop
between the service-line, half-court line, and
side-line of the court, diagonally opposite to that
from which it was served. The .system of scor-
ing is framed on a basis of fifteen for each strok,e
won; but the third stroke is called forty instead
of forty-five. If both players win three strokes,
the score is called 'deuce' instead of forty all. The
winner of the ne.t stroke scores 'advantage,' and
if he also gets the following stroke, he wins the
game; if the stroke falls to the opposite side, the
score goes back to 'deuce.' Similarly the player
who first .scores six games wins the set, unless
both should have won five, when a player nmst
win t«o consecutive games to score the set. If
he fails to do this, the score is once more called
'games all,' and the same conditions jirevail as
before. The players change sides at the end of
every set. All championship matches have since
1880 been determined by the winning of three
sets out of five; but since 1SU7 the English
system of handicapping occasionally has been
employed, but without the use of differential
tables. Brielly, a player is benefited by giving
or owing strokes or giving bisques. A bisque
is one point which can be taken by the receiver
of the odds at any time in the set, except after
a service is delivered or by the server after a
fault. The game was played in America within
a year of its adoption in England— at Nahant,
near Boston. The next year a court was laid
out at Xewport, K. 1., which has been the Ameri-
can head(|uarters of the game ever since, although
it has grown to such an e.xtent that, in addition
to national cliaiiipionships, there are yearly held
2U championship contests by single States or
gioui>s of States. The first open championship
was held on the grounds of the Staten Island
Cricket Club in 1880. The next year the United
States Xati<mal Lawn Tennis Association was
formed, and rules adopted which have, however,
been modified and altered from time to time,
and since then the national championships have
always been played at Newport, K, I. English
players have frequently taken part in them, with
marked success at first, which gradually dimin-
ished as the American play developed along na-
tional lines. These may be summed up under
these lieads: ( 1 ) The screw service whereby the
ball is made to curve in its downward llight
(like the 'out-drop' of a modern baseball |)iteher)
imparting a double and most baffling motion;
(2) the practice of volleying from a jjosilion so
close to the net that these .strokes can kill the
ball; (3) the development of file 'stop volley,'
whereby the ball is simply stopped with a loosely
held racket and falls over the net 'dead'; (4) the
development of 'lobbing' to a wonderful extent,
lobbing very high with a slight <ut that gives the
ball a back twist. The American Association
has recently modified one of the two important
differences between the rules of play in England
and America by limiting the rests to which play-
ers were entitled between sets, to one rest after
the third set. and no more. The other difTerence,
the foot-fault rule, remains.
LAWRENCE, A eity and the county-seat of Douglas County, Kan., 40 miles west by south of Kansas City; on both sides of the Kansas River, and on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and
