PARK AND CEMETERY 
and LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY. 536 SOUTH CLARK STREET. CHICAGO 
H. C. WHITAKER. President O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
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$2.50 a year. Single copies, 25 cents. Published on the fifteenth of the month. Copy for advertisements and reading matter should reach us by the First of the month. 
Vol. XXVII. No. 12. 
FEBRUARY, 1918. 
EDITORIAL 
PARK REPORTS. 
A leading landscape architect in a 
letter to a park board calls forcible at- 
tention to the value of a systematic 
study and expert reports on park af- 
fairs, and summarizes some things that 
make for park efficiency in a series of 
pertinent questions as follows : 
"Have you ever gone over the physi- 
cal properties under your control 
guided in your search for permanent 
betterment of conditions by an expert 
in park matters ? 
"Have you ever had your attention 
called to the unjustified wastes in ma- 
terials and labor which might be saved? 
"Have you questioned your foreman 
in the way which would determine his 
fitness for the job? 
"Do your books show at the end of 
your fiscal year what you really want 
to know ? 
"Are you satisfied that the money 
spent is bringing the proper returns in 
general improvements and upkeep that 
it should? 
"Are you ready to try and remedy 
some of the things which you probabl}' 
realize do exist but do not know just 
what to do to apply the remedy?" 
A report on conditions as they actu- 
ally are and suggestions for the remedy- 
ing of any matters which are not going 
right is the first step toward orderly 
management of park affairs. One Park 
District saved ten times the cost of a 
report in a year on supplies alone. An- 
other where taxes amounted to only 
$7,500.00 a year saved five times the 
charge in labor items alone, and another 
by adopting a plan and budget system 
now are beginning to improve the parks 
where before it took all the taxes for 
upkeep alone. 
BETTER CEMETERY 
MONUMENTS. 
In the illustrations of the better 
types of monuments illustrated last 
month and in this issue, there is encour- 
aging evidence that we are gradually 
fashioning our common everyday monu- 
ments into something of respectability 
in proportions and refinement in decor- 
ation. It is by a gradual refinement of 
stock forms that we make progress to 
better things. The monumental tablet 
type still holds strongest favor, both 
in its upright and horizontal styles, and 
some really new and noteworthy types 
in the "garden” or vase memorial are 
becoming standard. We still have some- 
thing to learn in the matter of lettering. 
The huge billboard letters still shout 
the family name and spoil many g(jod 
dies, and decoration is often out of 
place or overdone. 
Our stock forms are being designed 
in better proportions and with more 
appropriate decoration. Older stock 
forms of the junk variety are being 
either abandoned or refined into more 
nearly correct lines. While the artis- 
tic monstrosities erected years ago are 
still unfortunately much in evidence in 
the cemeteries, the higher general aver- 
age of quality in the work erected 
within the last few years is evident. 
This naturally suggests the thought 
that there will come a time in the future 
when some of the more hideous forms 
now in the cemeteries will be replaced 
by modern monuments. Some day lot 
holders who have the means will be 
susceptible to the idea of erecting mon- 
uments of modern artistic style to take 
the place of the out-of-date stock 
forms that now disfigure their lots. 
People tear down old houses whose 
architecture is out of date and erect 
new and finer homes. They discard the 
automobile of several years ago as junk 
and invest in more modern and beauti- 
ful types. Then why not erect more 
beautiful, more artistic and more mod- 
ern monuments to take the place of the 
old ones? A substantial monument busi- 
ness will some day be built by advertis- 
ing and educating the lot owners to 
replace old and antiquated types of 
monuments with modern artistic w'orks. 
IMPROVEMENT ASSO- 
CIATION WORK. 
The question has often been asked 
how can an Improvement Association 
whose interest lies entirely in a re- 
stricted area become more efficient in 
the discharge of its responsibilities 
towards its members, that is, in the mat- 
ter of improvements which have to do 
with the physical aspects of the district 
having of course nothing to do with 
individual business interests, such as 
credit rating. 
Have you ever considered what might 
be done in your district, for instance 
in the general improvement of the park- 
ways by planting trees, or in the matter 
of enlisting the property owners in a 
concerted effort to make their plantings 
in the front lawns conform to a pre- 
arranged scheme? 
Have you e\er considered that the 
trees in your district should he taken 
care of in a way of trimming, spray- 
ing, etc. ? 
Have you ever considered that you 
might increase your membership very 
materially if your Association were to 
take up some line which would interest 
not only the business men of your 
community, but also those who own 
property there, but whose business in- 
terests lie elsewhere? 
Have you ever considered having a 
report made by someone familiar with 
these things outlining in a general way 
the conditions as they at present exist 
and what activities might be taken up 
for the future? 
Such a report and a plan of work 
are the first necessities to efficient im- 
provement association work. 
NATIONAL PARK PROGRESS 
If anyone doubts the success of the 
movement to develop our national parks, 
he has only to examine the record for 
the season just passed. There were peo- 
ple, many thousands of them, who pre- 
dicted that the immense forward stride 
of national parks popularity which be- 
gan in 1915 would lapse into a limp 
with the coming of the first war sum- 
mer. Some of these thousands doubted 
whether the national parks would even 
be opened : in fact, many such inquiries 
were made of the Department of the In- 
terior during the spring. The fact is 
that Secretary Lane’s prediction at that 
time that park patronage would fully 
equal last year’s has been more than ful- 
filled ; the first summer of war brought 
to the national parks an increase which 
far exceeded the dreams of the most 
optimistic. The season of 1917 regis- 
tered an increase in national parks pat- 
ronage more than ,3(i per cent in ad- 
vance of the season of 191(1. In num- 
bers, 487, HGS persons visited our na- 
tional parks this last season, as against 
358,000 the season before, itself a rec- 
ord season. In numbers, the increased 
patronage amounted to 129,362 persons. 
And this in a war summer, with the na- 
tion’s eyes fixed intently upon the east- 
ern trenches ! 
