PARK AND CEMETERY 
and LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
ALLIED ARTS PUBLISH ING COMPANY, 536 SOUTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO 
R. J. HAIGHT, President H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and General Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
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VOL. XXVII NO, a 
EDITORIAL 
LEGAL STANDARDS OF 
CEMETERY MANAGEMENT 
A cemetery is a public institution 
whose function, operations, history, 
management and records are of the 
highest importance. Every cemetery, 
however small, should be accurately 
located, accurately platted and under 
the direct control of some properly con- 
stituted authority. State laws should 
provide for the proper management of 
cemeteries and should require the coun- 
ty and city authorities to provide for 
the proper protection, preservation, and 
management of all cemeteries. Accu- 
rate and complete records of every in- 
terment are required by law in many 
states and should be compulsory every- 
where. Every live cemetery manager 
realizes that complete records are the 
first necessity of a well-managed ceme- 
tery. They avoid future litigation and 
confusion in locating graves and in es- 
tablishing ownership of lots. No sy's- 
tem of cemetery records is complete 
without three things : First, a detailed 
record of the important facts about 
every interment ; second, a lot diagram 
to immediately locate every grave ; and 
third, an index by which every entry in 
either interment record or lot book may 
easily be found. State laws should be 
passed in every state requiring ceme- 
teries in present operation to provide 
accurate records of all their transac- 
tions, and providing for some sort of 
supervision over old or abandoned ceme- 
teries. North Carolina has just passed 
a law framed by Representative J. R. 
McCrary, of Lexington, requiring coun- 
ty authorities to keep an accurate list of 
all country cemeteries, and take other 
measures for the control of old ceme- 
teries. This law provides : 
"That it shall be the duty of the boards 
of county commissioners of the various 
counties in the state to prepare and keep 
on record in the office of the Register of 
Deeds a list of all the public cemeteries 
in the counties outside the limits of in- 
corporated towns and cities, and not es- 
tablished and maintained for the use of 
an Incorporated town or city, together 
with names and addresses of person or 
persons in possession and control of the 
same. To such list shall be added a list 
of the public cemeteries in the rural dis- 
tricts of such counties which have been 
abandoned. And it shall be the duty of 
the county board of commissioners to 
furnish to the Legislative Reference Li- 
brarian copies of the lists of such public 
and abandoned cemeteries to the end that 
he may furnish to said boards for the use 
of the persons in control of such ceme- 
teries suitable literature, suggesting 
methods of taking care of such places.” 
In order to provide some measure of 
care for such cemeteries another sec- 
tion requires the county authorities to 
pay for one-third the expense of beau- 
tifying and improving any such ceme- 
tery, providing the other two-thirds of 
the necessary funds have been raised by 
other means. The county authorities 
are al.so required to take possession and 
control of all abandoned public ceme- 
teries m their respective counties, to see 
that the boundaries and lines are clear- 
ly laid out, defined and marked, and to 
take proper steps to preserve them from 
encroachment. With the rapidly in- 
creasing number of private companies 
engaging in the cemetery business, it is 
becoming increasingly necessary that 
standards of operation be searchingly 
scrutinized and regulated by law, and 
that every cemetery be required to meas- 
ure up to minimum requirements of 
maintenance and efficiency. Every state 
should have laws requiring cemeteries 
to provide adequate funds for care of 
grounds, a thorough system of records 
and measure up to certain requirements 
of financial stability. Cemetery men 
should endeavor to secure the passage 
of such laws, and it might be feasible 
for the Association of American Ceme- 
tery Superintendents to draft and rec- 
ommend a general law embodying the 
principles of correct cemetery manage- 
ment, and endeavor to secure its passage 
in as many states as possible. Park 
AND Cemetery would be glad to hear 
from cemetery officials with any sug- 
gestions along this line. 
NATIONAL PARKS AS 
SUMMER RESORTS 
When asked whether the national 
parks are to be closed to visitors dur- 
ing the season of 1917, Secretary Lane 
stated that the persistent rumors which 
have been current, particularly in the 
Middle West, that such action was to 
be taken by the Interior Department, 
have absolutely no foundation in facts. 
All of the parks are to be opened at the 
usual time. The Secretary believes that 
the entrance of the United States into 
the war will not materially affect west- 
ern tourist travel, and expressed the 
conviction that the national parks will 
be quite as well patronized this year as 
they have been during each of the past 
two years, when upwards of 400,000 peo- 
ple visited them. The Interior Depart- 
ment has taken effective steps to put 
MAY, 1917 
the parks on a par with the best- 
equipped summer resorts in the world, 
and already transportation and hotel ac- 
commodations in several of them have 
reached this standard. The splendid ho- 
tel system of Yellowstone Park will be 
supplemented this year by a system of 
excellent new permanent camps, and 
ten-passenger touring cars, supplanting 
the ancient stage coaches, will offer a 
high degree of comfort and convenience 
in traveling through this great play- 
ground. In the Yosemite a new hotel 
at famous Glacier Point, with every 
modern appointment, will be opened for 
the first time, and in beautiful Paradise 
Valley, in Mount Rainier Park, the new 
Paradise Inn will welcome its first vis- 
itors this summer. In these parks, also, 
new transportation equipment will pro- 
vide service of a high order. New ho- 
tels in Rocky Mountain Park and the 
recently reorganized transportation serv- 
ice in Glacier will make the touring of 
these parks on the top of the Rocky 
Mountains delightful. Road improve- 
ment under larger appropriations by 
Congress, supplemented by the increased 
park revenues, is moving forward rap- 
idly. Conditions for automobiling in 
the parks will he better than ever be- 
fore. The Department is giving special 
attention to the stimulation of motor- 
ing by issuing free automobile guide 
maps showing the road systems of the 
larger parks and the state highways 
connecting with them. New circulars of 
information for all prospective visitors 
will also be ready for distribution soon. 
The parks are not as well known as 
they ought to be, and the Interior De- 
partment is doing all it can to tell the 
people about them. 
WHITE PINE QUARANTINE 
The Secretary of Agriculture has 
amended the white pine blister rust 
quarantine promulgated April 21, 1917. 
This amendment is made effective May 
1, 1917, and prohibits the movement of 
white pines and black currant plants 
from the New England states to points 
outside of New England. This action 
was necessitated by the considerable 
movement now under way of possibly 
infected white pines, and to a less ex- 
tent, black currants, from New Eng- 
land to states lying west and south. 
Both of these plants are important car- 
riers of the blister rust disease. 
