66 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



lawn — that great charm — without which a gar- 

 den is not worthy of the name. 



Our readers all know that the soil should be 

 made as deep as possible, because a deep soil is 

 generally a reservoir of moisture, from which is 

 replaced the waste from the drying surface, un- 

 der the summer heats, and thus the grass is kept 

 from burning out. But this is not all. Lawns 

 soon become impoverished by exhaustion of the 

 soil, and by continual mowing, — and this has to 

 be provided for. Mowing machines particularly 

 injure lawns, by their very close and continuous 

 cutting. But this must not be an argument 

 against the machines. We cannot do without 

 them. One should be on every lawn of any ex- 

 tent. But we must in some way provide a 

 counter advantage to check the weakening in- 

 fluence which they undoubtedly exert. One of 

 the troubles of close mowing is, that the grass is 

 so weakened in vitality that little, low, vile 

 weeds soon advance their forces, and choke out 

 the grass. Allowing the grass to grow up with- 

 out mowing for a year will give renewed vigor 

 to the grass, and be death to the little pests ; but 

 in a year or two the old sod will be as bad as 

 ever, and it is doubtful whether the advantages 

 of the plan compensate for the' untidiness. It 

 is, perhaps, better to follow the suggestions of 

 previous volumes, to set the machine so as not 

 to cut so low as we did on the first introduction 

 of mowing machines, where it has not been 

 done. 



The hints we offered in our last number arc 

 in general applicable to this also. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOREST HILL CEMETERY, UTICA, N. Y. 



A correspondent sends us the following from 

 the pen of a citizen of Utica, — and we have from 

 Mr. Roderick Campbell the favor of photographs 

 of the buildings. The idea is excellent, and 

 promises to be very popular. 



When the Mort chapel was erected in Forest 

 Hill Cemetery by the late Mrs. Silas D. Childs, 

 the trustees of the cemetery thought that a suit- 

 able place had been secured for holding the final 

 services over the remains of the dead. Experi- 

 ence proved, however, that it was unsuited to 

 this purpose in winter. As the building is con- 

 structed of stone, its temperature is very low in 

 winter, and as during this season bodies are kept 



in the catacombs till spring, the application of 

 heat is out of the question. On many days it 

 v\'as colder in the building than out of doors. 

 The trustees therefore determined to provide a 

 building which could be used at all seasons of 

 the year. 



The conservatory is constructed in the form of 

 a triple arch, the middle arch being the highest. 

 The side arches, or lean-tos, join the main arch 

 just bej'ond the highest part of their curve. The 

 conservatory proper is 80x36 feet in size, and 

 constructed almost wholly of glass. In front of 

 the liuilding is a porch, or porte du chaise, 12x13, 

 supported by two pillars, under which the funeral 

 parties alight without exposure. On entering, 

 the visitor finds himself in a vestibule, 20x16 feet, 

 separated from the rest of the building by glass 

 partitions. From the vestibule a door opens into 

 the auditorium and conservatory. This part of 

 the building is 60 feet in length. 



The auditorium is 16 feet wide, and directly 

 under the main arch which is 25 feet high. The 

 floor is laid with alternate strips of ash and black 

 walnut, suflRcient space being left between the 

 strips to allow the heat to rise from below. On 

 either side are benches, of the same material, 

 for those attending funerals. Under the side 

 arches, which are 13 feet high, are flower beds, 

 10 feet wide, extending on either side the whole 

 length of the building. Hot-houses are divided 

 off by a glass partition in the front part of the 

 building on either side of the vestibule, where 

 tropical plants, requiring a higher temperature, 

 are kept. From the vestibule a stairway leads 

 to a gallery of the same size as the vestibule, 

 and from which a very good view of the interior 

 can be obtained. On the west of the conserva- 

 tory, and about the centre of it, is the tower and 

 observatory, 40 feet high. In the basement of 

 this are two large boilers, which supply the build- 

 ing with heat. The heated water from these 

 boilers flows through 2,000 feet of three-inch 

 pipes, laid under the floor beds, and when cooled 

 returns to the boilers to be warmed over again. 

 Twenty-five tons of coal were used in heating 

 the conservatory during the past winter, which is 

 only one-quarter of the amount first estimated. 



It is the only building of the kind in the world, 

 and reflects great credit on its originator and 

 designer, Thomas Hopper. Roderick Campbell, 

 a genial son of Scotia, has been engaged as 

 florist. For the past five years he has had 

 charge of a private conservatory in Brooklyn, 

 and for fifteen years before that time, was en- 



