Word: grasses
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...fads, fashions, customs, manners." Some of its subject matter has, of course, frequently appeared in the past in The Nation, Art, Business and elsewhere in the magazine. But now Modern Living has space of its own to roam around in, and this week ranges from the spread of crab grass to the immobility of trailers...
...whole catalogue of gifts bestowed on it by the Old World-the horse, borsch, Rudolf Bing, pizza, trial by jury, Pfannkuchen, the English sparrow and crab grass. Most arrived more or less by acceptable means, but the suburban affliction defined as "a grass with creeping or decumbent stems which root freely at the nodes" sneaked in. How it made the trip is a mystery. Perhaps, many years ago, it stole out of some Portuguese garden into the sea, and, just following its nodes, crept along the ocean floor like a living cable till it reached The Bronx. Not satisfied there...
...question for the thousands who doused their lawns with the new chemicals is: Will they work? Five companies this year are marketing such products, most of them priced between $9 and $10 for a package covering about 2,500 sq. ft.: Scott's Halts, Dow's Crab Grass Killer, Vaughan's Pre-Kill, Pax's Crabgrass and Soil Pest Control, Swift's Rid; others, presumably with names like Stomp, Unconditional Surrender...
Explosion. From all the evidence, killers do a fairly effective job if applied properly. Since the chemicals kill all seed, whether weed or good grass, the trick is to sow grass lawns in the early fall only, and to apply pre-emergent chemicals in the spring. By that time, all the good grass will have caught hold, and the killer chemicals will attack only the germinating seeds-the crab grass and other undesirable weeds-that remain. Even if used properly, however, the killers may cause some harmful side effects...
Compounds that contain calcium arsenate, for example, may damage annual bluegrass; those containing dacthal and zytron can harm fescues and bent grasses. Two new chemicals, calcium propyl arsenate and diphenatrile, have yet to be fully proved in all conditions. And as good as they are, none of the killers are 100% effective. Besides, no chemical can control the fellow next door, whose grass crabbed because he didn't use Don't, and as a result the pest inches stealthily across the property line carrying the seeds (about 50,000 per plant) of a monstrous population explosion...