THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
53 
‘A WELL SET GEM,” OAKWOODS CEMETERY. 
sum annually for the care of the grass, and of such 
hardy shrubs and perennials as would really en- 
hance the beauty of Oakwoods as a sylvan picture 
— what a delightful picture it could be made. 
Since spring, Mr. Lawson has accomplished 
some good and much needed work in thinning out 
the trees that have for years been crowding each 
other to the point of suffocation. Few shrubs find 
room for proper development when set at a distance 
of only five feet apart, and to set trees so close is 
simply to grow lumber — not pleasing plantations, 
and still less characteristic specimens. 
The acre owned by the U. S. Government and 
used as burial ground for Confederate soldiers has 
alone furnished six hundred 
Many of those taken out are soft 
maples, of which there was a 
superabundance; Box Elders, 
too, are also being taken up in 
numbers, (in every case where 
there is a better tree in close 
proximity), because they are 
shabby trees of shabby habits. 
They lose so many leaves during 
summer that their neighborhood 
is kept constantly untidy, and 
the grass sometimes permanent- 
ly injured, all of which is a fruit- 
ful source of that bctc noir of 
cemetery superintendents — un- 
necessary work. 
The deciduous trees grown 
at Oakwoods that do especially 
well are the English and Ger- 
man Linden, their American re- 
lative the Basswood, Elm (Am- 
erican) White Ash which is extra good, and above 
all, the hard or sugar Maple, which seems to be 
about everything a tree should be for cemetery pur- 
poses in this latitude. Among others that thrive 
nicely and are not commonly seen are the southern 
Tulip, and Salisburia Adiantifolia, or Maiden Hair 
tree. There are two or three fairly good little spe- 
cimens of the last named, but they are too shaded 
to do their best. I saw no Tupelo, or Sour Gum 
trees, although they are very desirable for ceme- 
tery planting, and grow well around Chicago. Con- 
ifers are faring badly at Oakwoods. Nearly all of 
the older trees are dead or dying. Spruces, White 
Pines, Arbor Vitaes and Junipers having suffered 
trunks to the axe. Heretofore 
this space was nothing but a 
solid and clumsy block of fo- 
liage — merely a wall of leaves. 
It now looks vastly better, the 
grass is already improved by the 
admission of air and sunli ght, 
and with the contemplative fig- 
ure on the monument that now 
marks the spot, the south end of 
the grounds is made far more 
interesting and attractive. But 
the weeding out of superfluous 
and inferior trees is being car- 
ried through the enclosure, and 
while in many instances it plain- 
ly should have been done long 
ago, their removal will still be of 
marked benefit to individual 
trees, and to the general effect. 
LAKE SHORE PLANTING, OAKWOODS CEMETERY. 
