PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Vol. XVIII Chicago, December, 1908 No. 10 
The Pittsburg Conventions 
It was a remarkable week that was-enjoyed by Pittsburgh, 
Pa., when the joint convention of the National Municipal 
League and the American Civic Association was held in 
that city last month. The program was a study in itself, 
and showed even to the casual reader the extent of the 
ground covered, and to be covered, as the two organizations 
continue their successful careers. To give added value to 
the proceedings a civic exhibit of large proportions and 
variety was carried out under the Citizens’ Reception and 
Entertainment Committee in the Carnegie Institute, which 
was visited throughout the week by numbers of people, and 
is to be continued until the 20th of the present month. This 
was one of the finest displays of civic activities ever held, 
and was appreciated by the local organizations as a fine op- 
portunity to show their work. Considerable foreign improve- 
ment work was also a feature of the exhibition. The pro- 
ceedings were marked by the presentation of plain facts in 
the papers and addresses, with explanations of remedial and 
controlling efforts, and the discussions were altogether sug- 
gestive ; it would seem natural that under all the circum- 
stances, including the splendid efforts of Pittsburgh in the 
direction of up-to-date civic improvement and progress, there 
should prevail throughout the proceedings a spirit of con- 
firmed and cheerful hopefulness, and such was the case. 
Great emphasis was laid upon the highly important question 
of the conservation of our natural resources, and attention 
was also drawn to the possibility of trust machinations in 
the development of the vast water-powers as the internal 
water way projects are prosecuted, as the near fixture prom- 
ises they will be. 
VC Sg 
The Care of Civic Art , 
An incident which occurred in New York City well illus- 
trates the necessity of vigilant care on the part of civic im- 
provement associations, as well as the active co-operation 
of all friends in the cause of civic art. The Municipal Art 
Society presented to the City of New York a beautiful 
street electrolier, which was afterwards destroyed by a fire 
engine colliding with it. This work of art was demolished 
by the employees of the city, no one was held responsible, 
nor was any effort made to replace it. Such a condition of 
irresponsibility and disregard for its higher welfare on the 
part of a metropolitan city, should inspire the reformers in 
civic affairs to move with still greater energy. 
^ 
Scientific Town Planning 
The conditions brought about by the consummation of 
the Greater New York scheme in the way of large areas of 
bare land within the corporate limits, has led to the public 
suggestion that it is time to secure an organization or com- 
mission of some kind to take up the question of city plan- 
ning for the future, on a scale commensurate with its import- 
ance and permanence. It is a fact that city planning for 
the future has become a burning question, and but for the 
effects of the panic of 1907 would, in all probability, have 
made a rapid advance during the past year. It is a matter 
not for New York only, or any particular city in our country, 
but for all cities whose immediate future demands that atten- 
tion to the civic requirements expressed liy the rapid develop- 
ment of our national intelligence in civic duties and necessi- 
ties. Now is the time to provide for the future, for it takes 
time and infinite study to prepare a rational and economic 
civic plan and it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to edu- 
cate the community as a preliminary, before any successful 
effort can probably be made to begin actual work. 
'sg 
Improving Farm Life 
Tlie Commission appointed liy President Roosevelt to en- 
quire into the prevailing conditions of farm life and to make 
recommendations for their further development and improve- 
ment has begun the practical part of its work by sending out 
broadcast a circular containing a series of questions covering 
the ground quite thoroughly, and at the same time requesting 
suggestions upon each point from those addressed. The 
questions are so comprehensive in their nature, covering botli 
the business and home life of the fanner, that provided ordi- 
nary thought and care is given to the matter by those re- 
sponding to the commission’s circular, a vast fund of infor- 
mation will be gathered from which it should be possible 
to frame recommendations highly valuable to the agricul- 
tural population of the country, both as to its present and 
future welfare. To ameliorate conditions in respect to the 
present generation of the ordinary farmer will prove to be a 
discouraging proposition, for while cultivating the soil and 
growing crops undoubtedly imparts certain of the good qual- 
ities of manhood and a goodly share of common sense, it 
does not appear to lead him to place any value on the higher 
phases of life and culture he too frequently holds to be 
valueless in either his calling or home. Radical reform in 
the country school in all particulars is one of the crying needs 
of the rural districts. 
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Strict Cemetery Laws 
Cemetery legislation in the State of New York is very 
drastic, and imposes limitations and restrictions upon the 
establishment of new cemeteries, which discourages any ceme- 
tery schemes liable to be injurious to particular localities. 
The power of the State to compel an owner to dispose of 
property against his will, known as the right of eminent domain, 
for cemetery purposes, cannot be exercised unless the use of 
the ground can be made, in some sense, public ; and the Court 
of Appeals has decided that the legislature cannot 1)estow 
it upon a cemetery corporation where the land is to be vested 
in trustees to divide it into lots and sell to individuals, where 
no rights are secured for the public. Another quotation 
from the law, reads “A cemetery corporation shall not 
take by deed, devise or otherwise any land in either of the 
counties of Kings, Queens (and now also Nassau), Rockland, 
Westchester or Erie, for cemetery purposes, or set apart 
any land for cemetery purposes in either such county unless 
the consent of the Board of Supervisors thereof be first 
obtained, which board may grant consent upon such condi- 
tions, regulations and restrictions as in its judgment the pub- 
lic health or the public good may require.” The area per- 
missible in such counties is limited to 250 acres, and the law 
puts the establishement of cemeteries entirely within the con- 
trol of the county authorities with respect to Greater New 
York and Buffalo. The requirements are very stringent with 
regard to the publication of press notices of application for 
new cemeteries, and the courts have ruled strictly on the law ; 
and more than one corporation has been checked in its efforts 
to secure lands for cemetery purposes on account of the 
non-observance of the preliminary legal stipulations. 
