Tennis and Croquet Lawns should not only be dead level, but should have faultlessly flat surfaces. For this reason you may need a few tips for levelling the ground. If possible, a position should be selected where the ground is naturally approximately level.

If this is not possible, it is necessary to transfer soil from the higher to the lower parts of the ground. The operator should provide himself with a long straight- edge (about seven feet long) and a spirit-level, as well as a supply of stout wooden pegs.

He must first get the foundation approximately level, using the straight-edge on the surface, or by sighting from tall pegs driven into the ground carrying cross-pieces fixed horizontally by means of the level. He should then drive in pegs over the whole surface six feet apart, and standing so much above the foundation as will allow for the amount of surface soil to be subsequently distributed over it.

Taking a central peg as a datum, he should work outward, adjusting each peg in turn by means of the straight-edge, and adjust until the tops of all are at the same level. It only then remains to fill in the soil to the tops of the pegs, or slightly over, to allow for subsidence and compacting by rolling. The pegs may be removed at any time afterward.

The tennis court has a net size of seventy-eight feet by thirty-six feet, or nine feet less in width for the single game. Additional width must be allowed for the poles and for the players. Therefore a total clear space of one hundred feet by fifty feet is not too great an allowance, and may be taken as the minimum compatible with the comfort and convenience of the players.

The full-sized croquet ground, according to the revised rules of the Croquet Association, should measure thirty-five yards by twenty-eight yards, or in feet one hundred and five by eighty-four, which space must be all clear turf. The only permissable decoration would be a wall fountain; something that will not get in the way.

In considering the position of a tennis or croquet lawn the designer has the choice of two courses. He may allot it a space to itself, enclosing it by a hedge or screen of trees or shrubs, and thus put it out of sight as something not altogether in harmony with the decorative scheme of the garden, or he may let it frankly proclaim itself as an obvious feature and component part of the garden design. There is something to be said for both plans.

In a garden of straight lines the rectangle of turf set aside for tennis or croquet would not be so conspicuous a feature as in a type of garden in which the designer aims for a natural effect and winding walks were elements in the design.

There is no need to make hard and fast boundaries to the tennis or croquet lawn. It may be constituted upon any convenient and sufficiently roomy stretch of level turf where the game and horticulture are not likely to come into conflict with each other.

Tennis lawns made upon ground which carries a marked slope are not always slightly features, reminding one of the idea one forms of the "hanging gardens" of Babylon. Such lawns may be considered indispensable, and if they have to be made at the expense of much excavating and banking up, means should be found to conceal their artificial outlines by means of shrubs, trees, or other suitable screening.

Revived interest in bowls has induced some homeowners to install a private bowling green on their ground. The regulation size is forty yards square, but less width is admissible if space is restricted. It is usual to sink the green below the general surface, and it must be truly level. The sloping banks and the space adjacent to them should be turfed, the former as a check to the bowls, and the latter to provide a vantage ground for spectators.