The turfgrass twilight zone

When I was reading the 1952 report of the “Turf Committee” from that year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, I was looking specifically for use of the word turf, or turf grass, or turfgrass. This 1952 report was the final one from the “turf committee;” by 1953 they would recommend use of the word “turfgrass.”

I came across other remarks in the 1952 report that are interesting and perhaps even relevant today. Some recommendations from the committee included:

• vigorous attacks from every quarter against the flagrant merchandising of nostrums
• grow good grass to minimize weed problems
• It’s unwise to promote soil conditioning materials wih a nearly complete lack of research data
• research programs will do well to determine “MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS” in everything. Those were their capital letters too, not mine.
• and the wonderful “Twilight Zone” comments, for what we today call the “transition zone”