Is this guy on grass ?

[OldKingCrow]

When I view event photos I am often drawn to the lush, grassy plains and landscape of many historical locations. I think I am tainted by a preconception that the landscapes of the period in many images are quite simply, dirt. There is also a noticed deforestation in many as well, which I think adds to the feeling of barreness. Chuck H and I discussed this before.... he would reply to event photos w/ "too much grass".

Comparing the original and green-lined version of the image below, noting the transitional lines of contrast where it seems dirt may meet grass of some sort or is it hoove churned muck ?

- Is it dirt from foreground to the building ?

- Was grass seeding for purposes of sodding a period practice ? or is it native, wild grasses ?





CJ Rideout
Tampa, Florida

[yeoman]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

Yes, lots of the images we we view look to be in the cold weather months, I would think there be reason for it.
I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina and not far from the fall line.
Our house dates to the 1920's and our front yard has dozens of very old oak, hickory, dog wood and sassafras trees. The "yard" has never been tilled. We have what I call a bit of Piedmont Prarie for our lawn. Truly, I may mow a few times a year to break down the leaves or tidy up. The wild "grasses" that grow are thin bladed and flower. The colors are purples, blues, yellows and white all season with some good ground moss and some sunflowers.
Our septic needed upgrade and new drain field a while back and I introduced "grass seed" to the worked area. Yes, the grass grows..., very thick and tall and must be worked to keep in shape. My Piedmont Prarie has done well for a long time on its own, and the land took care to cover its self long before seeded grass lawns became something else to burden our time.
Not making a point, simply my two cents.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

Also, consider that many period rural images were taken in or around army camps. Even around headquarters, the effect of that many people walking around, leading, riding or driving animals, maybe letting them graze, sleeping, drilling and generally stomping back and forth wears out a patch of grass. If you want to see this effect in modern context, look at the turf on an outdoor concert venue just before the event and just after.

We had wild grass on our lawn for many, many years before we had flood damage and had to overseed it. Even then, we used a mix of clover and bluegrass, allowing the remnants of the wild grass to regrow (and we already had clover in the mix, so it wasn't an intrusion.) It's still close to the natural grasses in our area, and it puts up with the local weather, heavy foot traffic, disc golf and animals tramping thrugh. Violets will grow in it, and we don't discourage them. Dandelions will grow in it, and I eat them. When I look at old photos from this area, the grassy areas don't look all that different.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

If one really wants to get into the study of period grasses, there are quite a few articles in agricultural journals and books, for example A Practical Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants 1857, or A Prize Essay on Grasses Best Adapted and Most Profitable to the Farmers in Ohio, 1860, or Sowing Grass Seed, 1864.

For the average farmer, I think the emphasis when it came to grass was how much grazing it would provide, and then whatever grew in the yard around his house was just luck. So looking at it from that viewpoint, you had poor farmers who got by with whatever native grasses there were (and some were luckier than others on that score), and other farmers who decided to plant certain grasses that were advertised as doing well for a particular location or situation. For example, around our area (Ohio), bluegrass was good for grazing but not hay, redtop was good for bad soil, timothy was good for hay but didn't last with grazing, orchard grass did well in shade but matured early for hay, and so forth.

Like anything else, grass recommendations and varieties have changed over time. One of the biggest changes in our part of the country was the big promotion of tall fescue in the 20th century, and the subsequent discovery that it carried an endophyte which harmed cattle. But most old pasture in this area is fescue now, which it would not have been in the 1860s. There's even been a later-maturing variety of orchard grass developed.

Edited to add: when we built our living history site, we cleared the land and planted it in a typical mix of period grasses for this area. It wasn't until later that we realized most people didn't care about details like that, but a "period" home or village with vast expanses of fescue untouched by grazing animals really does stand out as obvious when you look for it. There's also a different look to lawns or grassy areas that are kept short primarily by mowing, or by grazing and occasional mowing, or by trampling as well, as different species survive different pressures.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[McKim]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

Before the war the city was as drowsy and as grass grown as any old New England town, the war changed all of that in a very few weeks...Noah Brooks of Washington, D.C.

Alfred Bellard describes the building of a fort on page 162 of his memoirs, he closed his description of fort construction with "When it has been graded over nicely, it is covered over with sods." What really surprised me was a drawing made by him showing men in the process of laying...sod. Not seeding but actually laying sod which I suppose cam from the ditch.

[Brandon]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

I know that until the mid 1900s it was common practice to sweep your yard. Yeomen could not afford to seed there yard, so all they were left with was either weeds or dust. Therefor they would sweep there yards to keep the dust out of their house.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

I know that until the mid 1900s it was common practice to sweep your yard. Yeomen could not afford to seed there yard, so all they were left with was either weeds or dust. Therefor they would sweep there yards to keep the dust out of their house.

I'd say yes, with the added condition... in the south.

I don't know that swept yards were ever the fashion in the north or midwest. Were they?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

We often swept the paths to our sheds, but the yards had plenty of grass up this way. Could it be a combination of local rainfall and soil characteristics that made a sweepable yard?

[Hank Trent]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

We often swept the paths to our sheds, but the yards had plenty of grass up this way. Could it be a combination of local rainfall and soil characteristics that made a sweepable yard?

We had a swept yard, not by choice, when we moved a new double-wide home onto our lot a couple years ago in late fall, too late to have grass start. The clay subsoil made a horrible mess in mud season here in Ohio; huge clumps stuck to your feet wherever you stepped off a path.

Never having lived in the deep south, I have no idea how that works. Is there a similar mud season with clay soil in the "swept yard" geographic area? If so, what do you do--just stay out of the yard and walk on paved paths or planks only till mud season ends?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[yeoman]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

Can't say we live in the deep south but we do live in the Piedmont of N.C. When we moved into our old house 15 years ago, the house had already been around since the 20's. We have a curved double entrance driveway which was made simply by vehicle traffic over the years. It had been worn and small quartz stones had risen to the surface. With time, the dirt was washed away by the rains and left a good hard natural like driveway. Unless you disturb the soil here, the bare spots are hard with lots of small stones on the surface. The clay is about a foot deep from the surface and its brown in color.

[McKim]

Re: Is this guy on grass ?

Can't say we live in the deep south but we do live in the Piedmont of N.C. When we moved into our old house 15 years ago, the house had already been around since the 20's. We have a curved double entrance driveway which was made simply by vehicle traffic over the years. It had been worn and small quartz stones had risen to the surface. With time, the dirt was washed away by the rains and left a good hard natural like driveway. Unless you disturb the soil here, the bare spots are hard with lots of small stones on the surface. The clay is about a foot deep from the surface and its brown in color.

In the archeolgy report from Brawner's Farm they mention that (if I recall it correctly) crushed blue stone had been added to the swept lawn. So I suppose the idea of a gravel drive came from the old gravel yard.