PARK AND CEMETERY 
272 
whether any changes or modifications from former calcula- 
tions and deductions are desirable or necessary. Our aim is 
to arrive at that point where the price of a lot will cover 
everything that is necessary to perpetuate its good and tidy 
appearance, its care and its protection without any further 
tax or charge. When this is accomplished we think we shall 
have solved the question in our own case. We are also plan- 
ning to furnish a special care for decorative planting, for 
cleaning and rejointing all classes of stonework, but we do 
not consider it advisable to make provisions for the renewal 
of stonework. 
With these few remarks covering our own case I will close 
with my answers to your questions : 
No. I. Careful investigation of cost of maintenance leads 
me to say that nothing less than 25 cents be set aside for the 
perpetual care of a lot area. In addition to that I consider it 
eminently proper to burden a lot fronting on a path (grass), 
or on a reserve lawn space, or on an ornamental planting area, 
more than one that is not so favorably situated; therefore 1 
would suggest increasing the price of the former lot by add- 
ing to and charging to it part of the area immediately adjoin- 
ing the lot, and placing this extra cost to the amount originally 
contributed to the perpetual care. In this way the care of 
grass walks, reserve lawn spaces and planted areas will be 
taken care of by lots surrounding them, as it is proper they 
should be. 
No. 2. In every cemetery there is a certain amount of area 
not saleable, which needs care. In the foregoing pragraph a 
suggestion is made as to how to provide for grass walks, re- 
serve lawn and planting areas. In addition to these areas of 
drives, steep hills, lakes, etc., must be taken care of, and for 
this I would suggest proportioning the perpetual care fund 
the same as the proportion is between saleable and unsaleable 
area. 
No. 4. Would recommend specially appointed Board of 
Trustees to operate the perpetual care fund, making the 
board accountable to some judiciary. 
No. 7. Contracts for the care of monuments, mausoleums, 
etc., and charges for such care can only be based and deter- 
mined upon carefully made specifications and estimates cover- 
ing each case. It will be impossible to make up and follow 
any one schedule of charges. 
No. 8. From two to three per cent. 
No. 9. Owing to uncertainty of cost of labor and earnings 
of money in tbe future, I would favor a plan whereby a 
guarantee is given for a term of years only, say from 30 to 
50, with the understanding and privilege of adjusting the 
agreement at the expiration of the one period to the then 
existing conditions of labor and interest, as a basis upon 
which to enter an agreement for another period. 
Frank Eurich, Superintendent. 
* * * 
Ca!ve Hill Cemetery, Louis'hiUe, Ky. 
We do not as yet sell lots in the cemetery with the perpetual 
care included in the price of the lot. We have a separate 
company, called the Cave Hill Investment Company, whose 
managers are elected by tbe Board of Managers of Cave Hill 
Cemetery Co. This Investment Company receives gifts, de- 
vises or bequests, and cares for the principal, using the income 
for the special care of the particular lots for which the fund 
is provided, and does anything else as directed by the donor. 
No charge is made for this service. The cemetery company 
sets aside each month 10 per cent of the net proceeds from the 
sale of lots and single graves, which sum is paid to the invest- 
ment company monthly. The investment company invests 
this money, and as the interest accumulates reinvests it, until 
such fund and accumulations shall amount to a certain sum, 
the income from which will be sufficient to care for the 
grounds when the cemetery ceases to be self-sustaining. The 
form of contract entered into with the investment company 
is not really a contract, but rather a receipt for money to be 
held in trust and the income disbursed in a certain way. 
It reads as follows ; 
Office of 
Cave Hill Investment Co. 
(Incorporated.) 
Louisville, Ky ig. . . 
Received of 
Dollars, to be held in 
perpetual trust, with power in the Trustee to invest and re- 
invest the same. The annual income to be used for the 
special care of Lot No Section 
in Cave Hill Cemetery. 
Cave Hill Investment Company, 
By 
Treasurer. 
In response to the questions asked : It is advisable to set 
aside for at least 10 per cent, preferably 15 per cent, of lot 
sales. 
All the income of this fund should be applied to the care 
of the cemetery as a whole. 
When a portion of the cemetery has been sold without 
special care contract, if unable to get owners to donate a fund, 
tbe whole cemetery should be cared for. 
Trustees should be elected by lot owners or by board of 
managers of cemetery, if these are elected by the lot owners. 
To determine the amount of deposit required from in- 
dividual lot holders for perpetual care of their lots estimate 
amount of fund which at 3 per cent per annum will produce 
sufficient income to pay charges for special service. 
In accepting deposits for the care of mausoleums, monu- 
ments, etc., each case is separately considered and estimate 
made of probable annual cost. 
Three per cent interest can be allowed. 
It is proper to guarantee something in perpetuity when the 
company has a perpetual charter. 
L. D. Carter, Secy, and Treas. 
^ ^ ^ 
Oakland Cemetery, St, Paul, Minn, 
Regarding perpetual care and permanent funds, I thank 
you for putting the questions so clearly and giving me an 
opportunity to answer, once for all, the many inquiries on 
that subject. Hereafter I shall refer inquiries to Park and 
Cemetery. The answers embody the result of much thought 
for seventeen years, and the practical results of thirty-four 
years of experiment on the part of Oakland Cemetery. Our 
state laws regarding cemetery trust funds seem to me to be 
a mass of complicated nonsense, and omit the vital part — i. e., 
provision for state inspection. Our fund was established be- 
fore that law was enacted. We are acting under the general 
provisions of the law as contained in General Statutes of 
Minnescota, which reads as follows : 
“Section 3096. Any association incorporated agreeably to 
the provisions of this title, * * * may also purchase, or 
take by gift, and hold personal property, and may sell the 
same, and apply the proceeds thereof to the purposes men- 
tioned in section one hundred and seven of this title [3103], 
and no others ; and all real and personal estate which shall 
have been given or granted to any such association for the 
maintenance of any monument, the keeping in good order or 
the embellishment of any lot or grounds situated within the 
enclosure of such association, shall remain forever to the 
uses to which the same shall have been given or granted, 
according to the true intent of the grantor. 
