

EUKAL CEMETEKIES. 



proiluco tlio best fffoot in harmony with the gonoral design. This would not prevent 

 lot owners from indulging a fancy in the way of planting some favorite tree, or shrub, 

 or plant, near the grave, and it obviously would be a groat economy in the manage- 

 ment. Different parts of the ground might be laid out and kept in a less costly or 

 a more expensive manner, as might be required to accommodate people of various 

 means and different degrees of taste and liberality. It strikes us that unless some 

 such svstem be adopted and carried out, we canno*; hope to have rural cemeteries 

 reallv and truly worthy of the name, and of the care, and labor, and money we are 

 expendin<">' on them. A few years hence the errors that have been committed will 

 become more apparent, and, at the same time, more diflicult to correct. 



Another point deserves a remark. lu many of the cemeteries the graves are raised 

 to an unnecessary, and, in some cases, to an absurd licight above the ground level. 

 This is objectionable for several reasons : — 1st, It looks bad. What necessity is there 

 for throwino- up a huge bank of earth merely to mark the locality of the grave ? Does 

 not a o-entle elevation not exceeding twelve inches, or even half that, look much better ? 

 Then on these elevated mound? neither grass nor any other plant can bear the heat 

 and drouth of summer, and a heap of bare red earth is left to indicate the grave. 

 This thin"- has puzzled us a thousand times. We would not divest a burial ground of 

 its natural and essential characteristics — we would not have it appear as a mere park 

 or pleasure ground — but we would seek, by judicious arrangement, to give greater 

 force and expression to its various ombellisliments, whether artistic or natural, and 

 to increase the evidences of taste Avithout increasing the expense. 



" Insult not Nature with absurd expense, 

 Nor spoil her simple eharms by vain pretence; 

 Weigh well the subject — be with caution bold ; 

 Profuse of genius — not profuse of gold." 



In the selection of trees for cemeteries there are many errors committed, simply 

 because people who have not had opportunities of knowing what is or is not suitable 

 prefer their own choice to that of a person properly qualified to choose. We lately 

 saw some lots "improved" by planting around them such trees as sugar maples and 

 mountain ash in something the style of hedge rows ! Can we see such aggravated 

 cases of mismanagement without protesting against them ? Not, certainly, if we do 

 our duty or obey our impulses. 



We shall at some future time have something to say of trees peculiarly adapted to 

 cemeteries, 



