THE CARE AND EMBELLISHMENT OF CEMETERIES. 189 



will help us in the attainment of what may be feasible. I cannot 

 say that I agree, to the letter, with all these suggestions ; but 

 they are so good on the whole that I feel quite safe in quoting 

 them in this connection. 



I would again advise, no matter bow small the place, never to 

 start a new cemetery without some arrangement for the perpetual 

 care of all the grounds. This is of too great importance to be 

 neglected ; for, as I have alread}^ said, however well your grounds 

 are planned the entire beauty will soon be lost if this has been 

 left without due provision. Take care also that no slovenly, un- 

 skilful person has charge of your new cemetery ; the whole com- 

 munity are interested in its proper maintenance, and it is little 

 less than sacrilege to place it in charge of an incompetent man ; 

 as may be seen by the way some are managed. I have read that 

 the clown in "Hamlet" served iis a grave digger, but he was 

 hardly the man to have charge of a cemetery. 



Mr. President., Ladies^ and Gentlemen : I hope I have not tired 

 you all out b}' taking so much time ; and yet I feel that I have 

 hardly begun, there is so much to be said on this subject. It is 

 one in which we all have a common interest. My own heart is in 

 the work ; and if I have succeeded in saying anytliing to promote 

 in any way the Care and P^mbellishment of our Cemeteries, I shall 

 feel grateful to the Committee for assigning to me the duty that I 

 fear I have so poorly performed toda^-. 



Discussion. 



Samuel A. B. Bragg was called on and said that the paper read 

 had covered the ground so fully that he could hardly add anything. 

 He was formerly Superintendent of Mount Hope Cemetery, and 

 when there received visits from the Garden Committee of this 

 Society, whose members gave him many vnluable suggestions. He 

 was particularly struck with the account, in Mr. Barker's paper, 

 of the man who wanted his lot improved, but did not want the 

 headstones removed. He had himself had such a case ; the lot 

 looked well in spring, but soon dried up and looked worse than 

 the roadside ; in some places the soil was only three inches deep. 



He thought the essayist seemed inclined to plant rather too 

 many trees and shrubs in lots. In his experience many lot owners 

 inclined to planting too many or too large trees and shrubs, and he 



