447 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE GRADING OF CEMETERIES 
The above subject is selected in 
place of the one named by your 
•committee, which included only bur- 
ial sections, because the grade of one 
part is necessarily based upon, and 
lias to be considered in connection 
■with the grading of other parts. The 
■question of grading is one to which 
heed should be given very early in 
the development of a cemetery. It 
should indeed have great influence in 
the selection of a site. An ideal site, 
as far as the grade is concerned, 
would be one having a gentle undu- 
lation. If there are depressions or 
■\’alleys whose central lines have 
grades between three and si.x per cent, 
.and whose side slopes are not steeper 
than eight or ten per cent, it will 
not be necessary to do much grading. 
If the land is level, the drives should 
be depressed in order to give a pleasing 
variation to the surface and good storm- 
water drainage. If the land is very hilly, 
the problem becomes more difficult. In 
any case before commencing the grading 
•of sections, the location and grade of the 
•drives should be determined. These, as 
you have already learned from previous 
meetings, should have gentle grades, 
that is, grades not exceeding six per 
■cent, and should be placed so that every 
lot will be within 150 feet of the drive. 
Sometimes the topography will cause a 
variation from the above requirements. 
Where possible a drive should be lo- 
■cated so that the land on either side 
will be above it. If two valleys lie 
within from 100 to 250 feet of each 
•other, and are separated by a rolling 
piece of ground, it may be advisable to 
place the drives in these valleys. The 
■existence of certain trees may shift the 
location, or the existence of a lake or 
stream may determine that a drive 
shall be in a given place. At the very 
outset, when one starts in to do grad- 
ing, he should bear in mind the fact that 
when the work is completed, the best 
soil should be near the surface. It is 
sometimes necessary to .raise a grade 
several feet, and in this case good sur- 
face soil should first be removed, so 
that it will not be buried, and thus 
become useless. The fixing of the loca- 
Paper read by 0. C. Simonds, Landscape 
Gardener of Chicago, at Kansas 
City Convention of Cemetery 
Superintendents. 
tion and grade of the drives deter- 
mines the boundary of the various sec- 
tions. The finished grade of the sec- 
tion at this boundary should always 
be flat, and but little above the surface 
of the drive. Mr. Strauch, who was a 
most excellent grader, used to say that 
a drive should appear as though it had 
been a continuation of the surface on 
either side, and had merely had the 
sods removed, leaving a clean-cut edge 
of lawn, with this edge not over an 
inch and a half in thickness. The line 
of grade may change quickly after leav- 
ing the edge of the road, and curve to 
a lower or higher level. When it curves 
to a lower level, the surface near the 
drive will be convex, and when it curves 
to a higher level, the surface will be 
concave. Such a concave surface may 
be continued parallel to the drive, and 
form a shallow channel to sarry off the 
water from rains or melting snows. 
Care should be taken not to make this 
concavity too pronounced. As the 
grade ascends towards the center of the 
section, the curve should gradually ap- 
proach a straight line, and then change 
so as to form a convex surface. There 
are two dangers — one that the grade 
will be too much curved, and so give 
a weak appearance, and the other that 
the grade will appear too straight. 
The position of the true line of curva- 
ture in a given case is almost as limited 
as is that of a straight line joining two 
given points. It may be shown in a 
general way by contour maps and cross 
sections, but the finishing touches must 
be determined on the ground, by the 
eye, and the skill which produces a 
beautiful and satisfactory result is cer- 
tainly allied to that of the sculptor. 
Mr. Strauch used to say that he did not 
use a line in producing the grades at 
Spring 'Grove. “The land,” he would 
say, “must look right when the grade 
is finished, and the only way to deter- 
mine that is by using the eye-sight.” 
It has been stated that the good soil 
should be saved to be placed at the 
surface of the land. Usually the very 
first operation will be to scrape all such 
soil from the surface of the drive and 
put it in piles, conveniently near. Places 
for these piles of good earth should be 
selected where the grade is not to be 
changed, and from which they can be 
easily spread over the adjacent section. 
Then the soil should be removed from 
the land where the grade is to be 
raised or lowered and distributed in 
piles along the areas that are not to be 
changed. This will uncover land that 
is too high, as well as that which is too 
low. After the good soil is piled up 
as above directed, the high land will 
be plowed, and then scraped or hauled 
to the land that is too low. In making 
the fills, it must be remembered that 
the disturbed earth will settle — the set- 
tlement sometimes amounting to twenty 
per cent of the depth of the fill. It is 
sometimes advisable to do the rough 
grading in the fall, and then allow the 
land to remain until spring, when most 
of the settlement will have taken place, 
and the finishing work can be done. 
The men who do the grading will 
know whether to use scoop-scrapers, 
wheelers, dump-carts or wagons. A 
most useful tool is one which is some- 
times called the “Maywood Scraper.” 
It is simple in construction, being made 
of boards put together so as to form 
a surface approximately two by three 
feet. Handles are attached so that the 
boards can be held in a vertical position 
or moved forward or back. The lower 
edge is protected by a steel plate, at 
each end of which there is a gudgeon 
fitted into an iron, which is attached to 
the tongue. By pulling the handles 
back, the scraper cuts into and re- 
moves a layer of earth, and by push- 
ing the handles forward, the earth thus 
removed is deposited in a layer, which 
is thin or thick, according to the posi- 
tion of the tool. A chain connecting 
the tongue and the handles prevent the 
latter from moving too far back. Hav- 
ing brought the subgrade to a satisfac- 
tory shape, the piles of good soil should 
then be spread evenly over the area 
by means of scrapers. The surface as 
left by the scrapers can be still further 
