Show a columnists thoughts thou 9 ats turn to T 0 squirrels and crabgrass by news analyst and commentator service 1616 eye street NW I 1 washington D 0 summer was creeping toward the potomac the flag over the white house hung limp as a wilted petal ahot a hot sw sun burning through the infrequent gaps in the heavy foliage made yellow patches on the lawn the fountain splashed faintly falling failing like warm futile tears I 1 moved slowly along the drive wondering it if I 1 could garner even a modicum of answers to meet emptiness left by the thousands of unan questions the world Is asking I 1 looked under the japanese oaks whose tightly laced leaves only a little above the ground smother the young grass hopefully starting up each ach spring withering in the shadows before july there bored and half asleep I 1 could make out the tha form of the old gray squirrel often this winter ht ho had come coma to my rescue when other dependable sources and authoritative quarters refused to yield up their secrets but this time he barely nodded and looked away deep in his meditations probably a nuclear problem of some sort A few moments later I 1 was taking down notes at a not very press and radio conference the president I 1 feared did not feel as cheerful as he looked the handkerchief in his breast pocket was neatly folded in its customary three thre flat razor sharp triangles sometimes hi his answers were almost an ai sharp the great red carnations on the table behind his hi desk which holds the photographs of members member of his hi family were already drooping the low hum of the mowing machine came in the open windows that look toward the potomac of what was said of import to the nation and the world you will 7 baukhage consults the old gray fray squirrel have read by the time these lines are printed the rest was trivia we walked out of the executive offices I 1 glanced under the japanese oaks but my friend the squar squirrel had gone the vista looked very bare and cheerless so I 1 went back and talked about it As soon as mail could reach me from sturgeon lake minn I 1 received a letter and a package the writer said that as I 1 had mentioned that it seemed impossible to raise grass on the shaded parts of the white house grounds I 1 might be te rested in this sample of quack grass which she offered and she wrote if it wont grow there ill be ba glad to know there is some place it wont grow the next day I 1 acknowledged the gift a and nd opined opened that quack grass must be another name tor for crabgrass which I 1 remembered as the bane of my lawn mowing experience soon I 1 received other communications A landscape designer to in akron ohio informed me that quack grass is not crabgrass the former is a perennial the latter Is an annual quack grass propagates by seeds and creeping root stalks crabgrass Crab grasa re seeds itself each year another letter came from robert L pop davis amateur mulch gardener of thorsby ala he referred to my mention of crabgrass sis as a pest and then he went on having spent years yean at my b obby hobby of looking for the most useful plant tor for growing summer mulch in my gardens and deciding that crabgrass was it I 1 cannot resist a challenge even though millions of gardens garden ers era agree with your remarks remark I 1 still ch challenge allenea them at present I 1 have a spring garden growing without any hoeing on land covered with a thick layer of last years dead crabgrass scarcely a weed can grow through it not even this years yeara crabgrass you see I 1 am pop the tha laziest gardener in the world and I 1 refuse to gather haul and spread mulch when crabtr crabgrass crab grasa ass will do it tor for me and do a b better et job of it I 1 make it mulch the land tor for me by leaving it strictly alone I 1 may even encourage it with fertilizer after I 1 have gathered my early spring vegetables I 1 let the crabgrass sa take over in early tall fail when the crabgrass stops growing here I 1 mow it down ithen I 1 then have thet mulch gardeners dolight delight a mellow spot where most anything can g grow ro w without using spade or hoe I 1 use a potato digger to dig planting holes but that Is not all pop may be the laziest gardener in the world but he be Is a vigorous poet he enclosed a poem of which alas I 1 have room only for one verse and refrain here it Is bring me a hoe pull em chick weed crabgrass dig and cuti cut stoop down nothing but trash goosefoot pigweed and johnston grass just no time to look at the sky fleecy clouds a floating by work til itil youve such a crook in the back that gardening pleasures gone clackl wisdom may have a foell foolish 8 h sound crab crabgrass g rass mulch is good for the gr girourd gro urd d let the weeds weed growl bring me a chairl chair crabgrass 1 mulch is ever everywhere soft and thick and brown strategy misfires in battle over OPA the battle over the OPA in the e senate has brought out some of the tha good old axioms on how to bring pressure on congress and how bow not to if you want to get yours your favorite bill passed anti OPA strategy all along has been to postpone action on OPA as a long as possible supporters nava have fought for action at this moment though some unforeseen event may change the course it looks as if the odds favored postponement but not defeat it first appeared that ordinary conventional vent ional methods used by the professional fess ional lobbyists hobbyists were going to kill the bill then it looked as if spontaneous tane ous written letters were going to save it in both cases the effort was overdone there were too many expensive advertisements in the newspapers sponsored by the various business institutions il fighting price control too much money easily identified as coming from vested interests was being spent then it was that john Q citizen sa sat t himself down took up his pen or often his pencil and wrote an letter because he mostly she was really stirred up congress began to take heed of those letters they were obviously spon span ta tanous ilous they were written b by amen men and women who had made up their own minis minds they were voters with convictions and it was very likely those convictions would be registered at the polls but once more pellon pelion was heaped heape d on ossa there was a nationwide nation wide w ide organization by the labor people the veterans the clubs the mail and telegrams piled up but the senators too inheres interested ted the letters were sincere enough but the majority revealed that they were inspired not by an inner urge a look into the pocketbook or pantry but by the persuasive voice over the phone or at the lr ir n loor do what you will the kin cation produced by tl rieth methods is very likely to hav secondhand appearance which is ie experienced congressman can recognize that Is why despite the number of letters and telegrams the regimented telephone calls sens senators tors were content to discuss the british loan and even ponder such complicated matters as atomic energy before hak hastening enIng to line up for OPA |