80 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



there should be annually paid to the Society one-fourth part of the gross 

 proceeds of the sales of lots, after there had been first deducted therefrom 

 fourteen hundred dollars to pay the salary of the Superintendent, and other 

 incidental expenses ; and by an Act of 1835, authorizing this arrangement 

 to be made, and for constituting the Proprietors of lots a Corporation, it 

 was provided, "that the money so received by the Horticuhural Society 

 should be forever devoted and applied to the purpose of an Experimental 

 Garden, and to promote the Art and Science of Horticulture." 



This first experiment to establish a Rural Cemetery, on this Continent, 

 has been prosecuted in such a successful manner as to have far exceeded 

 the anticipations of the most confident among its founders, and annually 

 becomes more beautiful and interesting by the extension and embellishment 

 of the avenues, paths and sepulchral compartments and the erection of 

 monuments. Within a few years a lofty Egyptian Gateway, formed of 

 massive blocks of granite, and a magnificent Gothic Chapel, of the same 

 ever-during material, have been reared, and an elegant iron fence con- 

 structed on the two sides of the Cemetery which front on public highways, 

 while on the southern and western sides a high and substantial range 

 of cedar palisades have been placed, which securely encloses the Avhole 

 grounds. 



The favorable influence of the establishment, in exciting a more respect- 

 ful and holy attention to the obsequies of departed relatives and friends, 

 has been experienced throughout the Union, as many like appropriate 

 places of sepulchre have been consecrated, and before many years shall 

 have passed away, they will be as numerous as are the cities and large 

 towns ; for, with the dictates of affection, respect and piety, sanitary con- 

 siderations will be united in the achievement of objects, which are as 

 indispensable for the preservation of the health of the living, as they are for 

 extending due honors to the dead. 



Mr. Vose filled the office of President during five years \ and so 

 prosperous was the Society under his guidance, and in such an able and 

 satisfactory manner did he perform the important duties of his responsible 

 station, that he eminently merited and received the grateful acknowledg- 

 ments of the members and their collaborators in all parts of the country. 



He had, long before his election, and has ever since, devoted a large 

 portion of his time to the culture of a garden, and particularly in rearing 

 the most choice varieties of fruit trees. He has also largely contributed to 

 the fund of the theoretical and practical knowledge in several departments 

 of horticulture, by reports and communications, which have been published 

 in the Transactions of the Society, or the literary and scientific journals 

 which are patronized by the "tillers of the ground. '^ 



The successor of Mr. Vose Avas Colonel Marshal P. Wilder, who was 

 elected at the annual meeting in 1840. 



