TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS CONVENTION. 



183 



slower growth yet longer life, they may be ready to fill in any gaps 

 which may occur through blight or decay. 



Shrubbery is another feature of the cemetery. Our trees must be 

 placed along the avenues, or as boundary lines, as in Mountain View 

 Cemetery of Fresno, where the Southern Pacific Company's roadway is 

 its southern boundary. At this line, a row of trees, banked by shrub- 

 bery of a lower growth, would prove an appropriate and desirable 

 screen. 



Captain Kellner, of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Berkeley, 

 suggests the names of several creeping plants Avhich have been used 

 successfully in arid regions to cover the sand wastes and clothe them 

 perennially with tender green. These creeping plants, or grasses, are 

 easily established, but have not the annoying tenacity of Bermuda 

 grass. Ivy geranium, once established, withstands drought and frost, 

 and would lend brilliant color and glossy leaf to many spots now 

 unredeemed. 



With only the earth, sky, and water at our command as materials, 

 and with taste, and above all, an intelligent, loving interest in our task, 

 we can make the wilderness to blossom. There are limitations to ceme- 

 tery work which the city or county parks need not consider. Our labor 

 must be confined to the laying out of a general plai:i of avenues and 

 foot walks which will reach all portions of the cemetery. To these 

 avenues, their repair, their shade, and their beautifying by a judicious 

 interspersion of hardy shrubs and bordering plants, with provision for 

 water, which is the life of everything in creation, our attention should 

 first be engaged. Trees are unsuited to the plot proper; their roots 

 penetrate too deeply and disturb the permanence of the graves. Confine 

 the trees to the avenues or boundary lines, and choose shrubs and 

 hardy rose trees for the plots. 



In the improvement of our town and country cemeteries, there is an 

 opportunity lying ready to the hands and interests of our women's 

 clubs. The Parlor Lecture Club of Fresno began four years ago to take 

 the matter up locally, resulting in the planting of an avenue of trees 

 two miles in length, the grading and oiling of the avenue, an improved 

 water system at the cemetery, whereby larger mains were laid, and the 

 installing of a pumping plant of increased capacity. Money has been 

 raised to erect a substantial and permanent iron and wire fence, and 

 the Club members have pledged themselves to build a memorial 

 entrance gate to be made of Raymond granite and wrought iroa. 

 Through concerted action other improvements will follow, and this 

 precedent established, surely others may find it an advantage. 



" There is no flock however watched and tended 

 But one dead lamb is there. 

 There is no fireside howsoe'er defended 

 But has one vacant chair." 



