PARK AND CEMETERY 
and LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY. 536 SOUTH CLARK STREET. CHICAGO 
R. J. HAIGHT, President H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and Generai Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
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EDITORIAL 
JULY, 1917 
VOL. -XXVII NO. 5 
CEMETERY LEGAL STANDARDS. 
X^early eve.-y mail brings to Park and 
Cemetery fresh evidence of the activi- 
ty of private companies in promoting 
the establishment of new cemeteries. 
Many of these enterprises are thor- 
oughly sound and well managed, and in 
capable hands. Some of the best cem- 
eteries in the country are operated as 
private business enterprises, but, on the 
other hand, some are promotional en- 
terprises designed to sell stock and real- 
ize large sums from ground sales that 
are paid out in profits, without suffi- 
cient funds set aside for the future care 
of the grounds. A cemetery is in a 
certain sense a semi-public institution, 
and should be administered as a public 
trust. Every state should have laws 
governing the management of cem- 
eteries that should require certain defi- 
nite standards of management and de- 
velopment, and provide for public in- 
spection in the same manner as banks 
and public utilities are regulated. 
No cemetery should be allowed to op- 
erate that does not provide as minimum 
requirements all of the following stand- 
ards : 
A definite proportion of all funds 
taken as a perpetual care fund. 
Some method of placing this fund in 
trust, so that no changes of manage- 
ment or dishonesty in individuals can 
endanger it. 
An accurate system of interment rec- 
ords and diagrams for the location of 
all burials. 
These are the simplest standards re- 
quired for permanence and safety, and 
are only a few of the things that every 
well-managed cemetery must provide. 
Many business men are entering on 
the development of cemeteries with- 
out knowledge of the fundamental re- 
quirements of planning, developing, or 
even selecting the land for a cemetery. 
Their first need is a plan, not only tor 
the development of the grounds, l)ut 
for the financial and business manage- 
ment of the cemetery affairs. There is 
a real need for a systematic study of 
cemetery development and legal stand- 
ards to govern all cemetery enterprises. 
The state of Pennsylvania has a law 
providing “that every burial ground or 
cemetery company or association in the 
cities of the first class shall keep a 
complete list of the names of every 
person buried in such burial ground or 
cemetery, arranged alphabetically, with 
the date of burial, the exact location of 
the grave, and the number and owner 
of the lot in which the grave is situ- 
ated. This shall be accomplished by 
means of a card index or other system 
in such a w'ay that knowledge of the 
name of a person or of the lot in which 
he or she is buried, or of the date of 
burial, will furnish a ready reference 
to the complete record. 
“Within tw'o years after the passage 
of this act, every burial ground or 
cemetery company or association in the 
cities of the first class shall have on 
file for the inspection of all persons, 
having an interest therein, a complete 
record of such information as is ob- 
tainable of all past burials made in such 
burial ground or cemetery, arranged in 
conformity with the requirements of 
section one of this act.” 
This law is good, as far as it goes, 
but much more comprehensive regula- 
tion is needed to insure safe and 
orderly management of cemeteries. 
NATIONAL VACATION GROUNDS 
There was, perhaps, never a better 
time than right now for readers of 
Park and Cemetery to plan to spend 
their vacations in our great national 
parks. On another page is a detailed 
story of the wonderful recreational pos- 
sibilities of these public reservations, 
and many excursion trips are planned 
by railroads and touring agencies. 
Notwithstanding the war, a larger 
patronage of the Rocky Mountain Na- 
tional Park is expected this year even 
than last, when 80,000 persons visited 
it and its beautiful valley gateway, Estes 
Park. The hotels, boarding houses, and 
public camps, which then were crowded, 
have all been enlarged. Even with an in- 
crease of many times in patronage, 
there will be no sense of crow'ding in 
the parks 400 square miles of valley and 
mountain fastness. During the winter, 
congress has enlarged the boundaries 
of the Rocky Mountain National Park 
by adding more than 40 square miles 
of area upon the Estes Park side. The 
Twin Sides and Gem Lake are now in 
the national park. 
The National Park Service now has 
ready new automobile maps in two 
colors of the Glacier, Rocky Mountain, 
Crater Lake, Sequoia, and Mount Rai- 
nier National Parks. The old-fashioned 
stage coach has passed from its “last 
stand" in the Yellowstone National 
Park. In 191-5 Secretary Lane admitted 
private automobiles to the park, but 
retained the horse-drawn stages. This 
season, however, the old stages are re- 
placed liy a fleet of seven and ten pas- 
senger cars, and the restrictions to gen- 
eral automobile travel are largely re- 
moved. The work Ijegun in 1915 is com- 
pleted. The Yellowstone is motorized. 
Two lakes of supreme beauty in the 
Rocky Mountain National Park, which 
have been inaccessible heretofore, will 
be opened up by trail this season. They 
are Lake Nanita and Lake Nokini on 
the west side of the Continental Divide. 
Every American should spend at least 
one vacation in the National Parks. 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
State forests with a total of over 3,- 
600,000 acres have been established in 
thirteen states. Of these New York has 
the largest forests, which comprise 1,- 
8'26,000 acres ; Pennsylvania is second 
with 1,008,001) acres, and Wisconsin 
third with 400,000 acres. 
On parts of the Angeles National 
Forest in California, the packrats are 
so abundant that many of the young 
pines, planted by the forest service, 
have been killed or injured by the ro- 
dents. The damage seems to take place 
chiefly in the late summer and fall, and 
is more extensive in dry than in wet 
seasons. It is thought that the rate tear 
off the tender liark of the trees to ob- 
tain moisture at times when water is 
scarce. 
Frank X". Decker, of Three Rivers, N. 
Y., has just put out, under the direc- 
tion of the State College of Forestry, 
an unusually interesting forest planta- 
tion. Some 16 species of Evergreens 
and broad-leaved trees have been 
planted with the idea of bringing back 
the original forest condition as Mr. 
Decker knew it as a boy. Because of 
the large number of species and the 
fact that they were planted about four 
feet apart each way, the plantation will 
be watched with a great deal of interest 
by students of the college, and by people 
in central New York interested in tree 
growing. 
