2l6 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



August, 



Taste and Tact In Arranging Home 

 and Other Grounds.* 



TENTH PAPER. 



The subject of the present paper is the 

 rural burial ground. Our illustration is 

 from a small cemetery lying adjacent to a 

 growing New York village, and which 

 cemet.ery it is designed to enlarge. 



The question before the trustees is this: 

 will the style of arrangement peculiar to 



same land is planned for obtaining simple, 

 graceful landscape effects, together with 

 the utmost ease of management and keep- 

 ing. Thus placed side by side, these plans 

 afford an excellent study for all persons in- 

 terested in the subject of suitable burial 

 places for the dead. That means every one. 

 A first feature in the suggested improve- 

 ments, that may be noted, is the graceful 

 and continuous roadways leading througout 



Old part of grounds hclow, and the contemplated new part above dotted lines A A. The, plan of old 

 consristing of straight walks, etc., shown extended through the new. About eight acres. 



A RURAL CEMETERY. 

 section. 



the present old part, if extended through an 

 addition, answer the tastes of the commu- 

 nity now and later, or shall some radical 

 improvements be adopted? 



Certain interested persons encourage the 

 idea of sticking to the old plan; the walks 

 are straight and convenient — the lots are 

 square, they answered in the past why not 

 for the future. But others, and including 

 some of the trustees, have visited certain 

 landscape cemeteries, about large cities, 

 and came away so strongly impressed by 

 their beauty and fitness as reposing places 

 for the dead, that they quite naturally ask 

 themselves and now ask Popular Garden- 

 ing, whether this garden cemetery idea is 

 not applicable to their own small burial 

 ground. 



It is a question the present writer is glad 

 to have a part in answering. And the 

 answer must be emphatically for the im- 

 proved garden cemetery, as being appli- 

 cable not only to the present case, but in 

 measure to every one of the more than 

 30,000 burial places of America. The old 

 style which we all know with rows of 

 square untidy lots and an excessive number 

 of straight walks that for reasons no one 

 can explain, are usually sunken a foot or 

 more, utterly defying nice keeping; with 

 fences, walls and hedges here and there 

 around individual lots, too often with tall 

 grass, weeds and underbrush abounding 

 quite generally; these may have answered 

 for the past, but with the fine examples now 

 to be seen, of what the btirying-ground 

 easily is capable of being made it never 

 should answer for the future. 



Let us take the present case and see what 

 may be done in the way of substituting the 

 improved garden cemetery idea for the old 

 style of arrangement. Above is given 

 a plan of the present burial place (below 

 the dotted line A A), and the tract to be 

 added, the old style of lay-out being shown 

 extended through this as indicated by 

 dotted lines. In the plot opposite the 



«Copyrlght, 1890, Popui-ab OAKDEioNa Publishing Co.- 



the grounds, serving to impart an air of 

 unity to all parts. These drives outline in 

 measure, also, the respective sections, in- 

 dicated by letters. The utmost freedom of 

 form prevails in their character, no two 

 portions presenting any close similarity. 

 What a marked contrast in this respect 

 with the straight, stiff drives of the ar- 

 rangement shown above. 



Next we may con.sider the distinctive 

 landscape quality which characterizes this 

 improved style of cemetery, as set forth 

 in the various sections, walks, etc. Each 

 section (take F for example) is designed to 

 present a continuous bold sweep of lawn, 

 with no variation of the surface between 

 walks and lots or elsewhere, except as 

 caused by the graves, and these should not 

 be raised more than four inches above the 

 established grade. Only grass or lawn 

 walks are to prevail. Such a thing as a 

 raised lot or a terrace must never be permit- 

 ted, while the presence of railings, walls, or 

 hedges as enclosures should be strictly 

 prohibited. As to contour of surface the 

 centers of the sectional plats should always 

 be somewhat crowning. To secure this if 

 the land is naturally flat, the earth exca- 

 vated from the course of the drives, may be 

 used in rounding up the centers. It is as- 

 sumed that the drives are to be made of 

 stone or gravel, which will require that 

 they be cut down about one foot.preparatory 

 to receiving the road material. But even 

 should dirt roads be employed for the pre- 

 sent (and if such are kept scraped, rolled 

 and clean of weeds and grass they answer 

 well indeed,) they may be cut down about 

 six inches, at the edges being left a little 

 higher in the center and the earth used as 

 suggested. Let it be added that in good 

 cemetery construction, each section should 

 be graded, converted into lawn and planted 

 with trees to some extent, before the sale of 

 lots is begun. 



In our plan the walks, six feet wide, and 

 the lots are indicated by dotted lines. In 

 laying out these or similar burial grounds 



the lots should be marked at their corners 

 by stone monuments about four inches 

 square, or by iron or white Oak stakes. 

 These should in every instance be placed 

 with their heads down fully even with the 

 earth, permitting the lawn mower to pass 

 over without hindrance. When once a sec- 

 tion is completed and opened for sale, all its 

 parts, whether sold or not, should receive 

 uniform attention in regular mowing and 



1 otherwise. 



The end secured by 

 such a course is that 

 each section presents 

 the aspect of a large 

 handsome, rounded 

 lawn plot, with noth- 

 ing to meet the eye but 

 grass, low graves, head 

 stones and monu- 

 ments, together with a 

 pleasing distribution 

 of such choice shade 

 trees and shrubs, as 

 are allowed by the 

 superintendent. With 

 all parts of the ceme- 

 tery treated alike, thus 

 an air of beauty and 

 repose will pervade the 

 place throughout, 

 standing in the most 

 delightful contrast, 

 with the old angular 

 and uneven style of 

 cemetery with all that 

 the name usually 

 carries with it in brok- 

 en and unkempt sur- 

 faces and an appal, 

 ling medley of weeds, brushes, hedges, and 

 other distasteful features. It is observed 

 by our plan that the sections — themselves 

 greatly varied in form and size, are divided 

 into individual lots also presenting much 

 variation of shape. This so far from being 

 an objection, is a great advantage, first in 

 overcoming the stiffness peculiar to grave- 

 yards laid out with everything straight and 

 square, second, a great variety of tastes of 

 lot buyers can be suited. 



Now we come to the most Important dis- 

 tinction of the improved garden cemeteries 

 of America, and which perhaps more than 

 anything else accounts for their superior 

 appearance We refer to the provisions 

 made for their proper maintenance for- 

 ever. The system involves the simple 

 plan of fixing the price of lots at a 

 figure that shall cover the expense of keep- 

 ing in good order by mowing and otherwise 

 perpetually. As the cost for this work is 

 quite light for any single lot when dozens 

 of them are cared for together, it does not 

 require that the price be greatly increased. 

 In the new Buffalo City Cemetery the price 

 of burial lots is fixed uniformly at twenty- 

 five cents per square foot, which amount 

 covers all expenses of grading, seeding and 

 care forever, While the price is the same 

 in all parts, yet some sections contain larger 

 lots than others, so that it costs more to buy 

 in such sections than in others. In the 

 single interment section the lots are six 

 feet by three and one-half feet each, for 

 children's graves, and eight feet by four feet 

 for adults. From these sizes there are lots 

 of various dimensions up to a thousand 

 or more square feet. In the plan shown to 

 the right the rear part of D is the single in 

 terment section. When one considers the 

 beauty and neatness of a cemetery kept 

 regularly mown and in good shape other-. 

 wise, the increased cost for lots is nothing 

 as compared with the satisfaction secured 

 to every lot holder as well as to visitors. 



It is seen by our design that curved drives 

 are planned to be carried through the older 



