When the ground has to bo cleared of whins, etc., they should be rooted up and not merely cut over. Whins are, I may mention, delicate of growth, and walking over soon kills them out.

When a new green is being formed, it is a mistake to do anything precipitately. Experience of the course will best show its capabilities and the proper position for holes, tees, and hazards.

After the links has been laid out it will be found that the upkeep of it requires much attention and care. The parts which suffer most from continuous play are the teeing-grounds, the places from whence approaches are played with iron clubs, and the putting-greens. Arrangements should be made for changing the places for teeing by shifting the tees back or forward, or by removing them to different sites. The only ways by which provision can be made for repairing the ground cut up by approaches are, either by moving the holes to different putting-greens, or by altering the course of the round. Moving the holes to other greens means keeping up a greater number of putting-greens, and it is not so effectual as 'changing the round.' I do not approve greatly of the plan of having relief greens, and would rather advocate the making of large greens, to enable the hole to be moved about from time to time as occasion requires; and I Would also advocate the reversing of the round, to permit of the damage done by iron play being made good. A continual watch should always be kept on the links, and whenever divots are cut out by play, the hole should be at once repaired; but, in addition to this, the whole links should receive a thorough overhaul yearly at the end of each season.

Now, the best means of repairing links varies according to the nature of the turf and the subsoil. On heavy links the best material for filling up holes is sand - a handful placed in the hole, pressed down with the foot, and the repair is executed; the sand soon goes down and gets intermingled with the soil. On some greens, where the subsoil is fine sand which will walk solid, the same material may be used; while on others, where the sand is sharp, and of a loose, open nature, a hack is apt to spread, and soil is required to help to bind the sand together. It may be taken as a rule that, where binding together is required, soil cannot be dispensed with, and that where this is not necessary sand alone may be used. In illustration of this I may quote the case of two of the best known links, St. Andrews and Musselburgh. On the former nothing but sand is used, with the best possible results; but the sand there is of such a nature that walking over it makes it firm and hard. On the other hand, at Musselburgh a small hack soon becomes, by repeated walking over, a small bunker; and the more sand is put on it, the bigger docs the evil become, the sand on this green being much sharper and more of a gravelly nature; and when a hole has to be mended, it is necessary to use earth to help to bind the sand together. If the damage to any part of a golf-green is at all extensive, the only satisfactory remedy - and this is generally applicable - is turfing over the injured part.

With regard to putting-greens, sand may generally be freely used. There is no feeding in sand, and it helps to open up the ground and to make the grass less coarse and rough. A good coating of sand may, as a rule, be applied to almost any putting-green with excellent results, especially if the grass is too strong and luxuriant. If, however, the subsoil is sandy and poor, the green may require nourishment, and a dressing of sand and soil, or, in some cases, of the latter alone, will be beneficial. It is a help to a poor green on which the grass is thin to add tine lawn seeds to the top dressing; but it is useless to sow grass seeds on the top of sand, as the heat of the sand seems to burn the seeds up. The proper course is to top-dress, then to sow, and thereafter to sprinkle again, taking care that in no ease is the top-dressing too heavily applied. I have seen bone dust and bone meal and also artificial manures, and even stable manure, put through a riddle, applied to poor greens with good results. Nitre ammonia and such forcing substances should never be used, because they have the effect of forcing a growth of grass at the expense of the roots; and what is required on a putting-green is a thick sole, not a crop of grass.

Judicious rolling and cutting are of the utmost advantage. Rolling, however, requires to be carefully done and its results studied; the roller should not be too heavy, and rolling should never be allowed to have the effect of caking the green and rendering the grass root-bound. A light roller should be used as frequently as may be required. 1 have known excellent putting-greens completely spoiled by the use of a heavy horse-roller applied to save the expense of employing men to draw a light one. Some greens - new greens of a loose, spongy nature - require a heavy roller to bring them into subjection; but I am speaking of greens that have been brought into condition. When a horse-roller is used, the feet of the horse should be encased in ' boots,' to prevent the iron shoes injuring the green.

A very important matter frequently neglected is the position and cutting of the hole. The hole should always be placed on a fairly level piece of ground on the putting-green - never on a steep slope; and care should be taken to see that the hole is cut the exact size, 4½ ins. in diameter and 4 ins. deep at least. It is usual to place a lining in the hole to prevent the edges being worn away, and the 4¼ ins. must of course be measured inside the lining. The lining should not be sunk too far beneath the surface of the ground, because if this is done the top edge becomes worn away by the rubbing of the Hag-stick against it, thus allowing a ball which would otherwise have rolled past to fall in. The hole cutter and the tins should fit one another. I have seen holes cut with too small a cutter and the tin thereafter hammered in, the result being that the surrounding green buckled up slightly, forming a ridge round the hole. This frequently accounts for balls just sticking on the lip of the hole when they ought to have gone down. I have seen greens, too, where the lining of the holes, instead of being thin, was quite thick - about the sixteenth part of an inch, perhaps - with the top bevelled off; this is most objectionable, because if this kind of 'tin' is at all near the surface, a ball played on the back of the hole will not go down, but will strike the bevel edge and jump out. It is the duty of those in charge of the green to see that such evils are avoided. The lining should be thin galvanised iron, made perfectly round, and measuring 4 ¼ inches inside diameter. The usual' tin' is a side lining only, with no bottom: but there has recently been introduced a tin with a bottom, a small hole being left for the flag-stick to go through. The advantage of such a tin is that the ball is kept, clean, and that the flag-stick stands - when properly put in - upright in the hole, thus saving the edges of the turf. Its disadvantage, however, lies in the fact that unless the hole is cut the exact depth of the tin - which is by no means an easy thing to do, - either it has to be deepened to sink the tin sufficiently, or, if it is cut too deep, the tin, by the pin being carelessly put in, and striking the bottom, is knocked down too far to be a protection to the edges of the turf. The hole should be cut straight down and the tin inserted and pushed into position, so that the upper edge is from half an inch to a quarter of an inch below the surface of the ground, depending upon the firmness or looseness of the soil. After the tin is placed in position, the ground should be firmly batted down with the back of a spade, and the top edge of the hole trimmed up. When finished, the depth should be at least 4 inches. This matter of depth is a point not always attended to. In selecting a spot for the hole, care should be taken to see that the grass is properly trimmed round about, so that no strong blade is left which might turn a ball coming into contact with it, Heavy flag sticks are a frequent source of injury to holes. Players are apt to put them carelessly into the hole, and the pressure against the sides breaks the green and enlarges the hole. The deeper the hole is, the less danger there is of this happening, and hence the hole should always be of a good depth.