361 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Perpetvial Care in American Cemeteries. 
(Continued.) 
A Symposium of Methods of 
Some of the Leading Cemeteries. 
Begun ill the May issue. 
Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. 
In answering the series of questions as to the proper 
provision to be made for the perpetual care of cemetery lots, 
permit me to make a preliminary explanation that the fog in 
which this problem is involved arises largely from the as- 
sumption that a particular rate per foot or a particular pro- 
portion of the receipts set aside for this purpose, will an- 
swer for any and every cemetery. The amount needed for 
the perpetual care of a lot in a cemetery depends upon the 
extent of the work necessary and its cost at the particular 
place where the cemetery is situated. In New England the 
grass requires cutting from the middle of April to the mid- 
dle of October, practically six months in the year. On the 
Pacific slope I understand that where watered, it is cut 
practically the whole year around. Here is a difference in 
cost depending on the climate. In this cemetery the cut- 
ting of the grass on a lot of a particular size is charged at 
$3.00. In a cemetery near here owned by a municipality and 
having an area of only one-fourth the size of this cemetery 
the same work is charged at $4.50, and I have the assurance 
of the authorities there, that there is less margin at that 
charge than in the one made here. Moreover, the cost of 
caring for six thousand lots is not six times the cost of 
caring for one thousand. Here is a difference in cost aris- 
ing from size and condition. Further, the expression “three 
hundred foot lot” is misleading. When at this cemetery a 
charge of $225 was made for the perpetual care of the grass 
for what was sold as a 300 foot lot, another New England 
cemetery was charging $120 for a lot to which they gave 
the same designation, yet they were receiving as much per 
acre as we were, for the reason that they sold the whole area 
between paths, for interment purposes, whereas lots in this 
cemetery are surrounded by space ways which occupy about 
one-half of the whole area. Therefore the amount to be 
set aside for the care of a lot or any number of lots is 
not a specific rate per foot which some other cemetery is 
using, but the known or estimated cost of caring for that 
particular piece of ground, capitalized at the rate which 
experienced financiers regard as just. 
These preliminary remarks are an explanation of why in 
answering the questions I give the practice here for what it 
is worth, bearing in mind that it may be inadequate for 
some cemeteries and beyond reason for others. 
Sixty per cent of the lot sales should be devoted to per- 
petual care. This may be set aside in money as the lots are 
sold or by the setting aside of a certain proportion of land 
as in the following suggestion by Mr. A. W. Hobert in a 
paper read before the A. A. C. S. in Boston, 1902: “Set 
aside a portion of the ground of the cemetery the proceeds 
from the sale of which constitute a permanent care fund. 
Suppose, for instance, one-fifth of the cemetery in quantity 
and quality to be set aside, why would not this secure the 
same result as to set aside one-fifth of the cash proceeds 
of lot sales? It may be urged as an objection that the man- 
agement would sell the four-fifths and let the remainder go 
to the last. This could not result in damage to the fund, 
as the last one-fifth would in all probability bring larger prices 
than the portion sold earlier. The beauty of this plan is 
that it makes it easy to do the right thing. Not every ceme- 
tery can spare a portion of its cash income, but there are 
none that cannot, even in the beginning, dedicate for this pur- 
pose a portion of its ground.” 
Forty per cent of the total charge should be set aside 
for the care of the individual lot and twenty per cent should 
be placed in a separate fund, the principal of which should 
not be encroached upon until a specific sum is reached, when 
the income should be devoted to the care of avenues, fences, 
buildings, ornamental grounds, etc. 
When a portion of the cemetery has been sold without 
special care contact individual contracts should be made 
with the proprietors of lots sold without perpetual care so 
far as that is possible. It may be estimated, however, that 
in a New England community, fifty per cent of all the lots 
so sold will ultimately be without care and that the funds 
for the general care of the cemetery will be called upon to 
prevent the surface falling into an unsightly condition. The 
monuments or other structures will, I assume, be removed 
when they become unsightly. 
The trustees having control of the perpetual care funds 
should be elected by the lot holders at large. The character 
of the investments should be limited in some way as are the 
investments of savings banks, and provision should be made 
after a lapse of years, or say after 75 per cent of the lot 
owners are unrepresented, for the appointment of trustees by 
the probate or other court. 
The contract should set out specifically what is do be done, in 
language which the wayfaring man, though a fool, may under- 
stand. It is not sufficient that the courts can put the proper 
interpretation on it, or that the lawyers can understand it, it 
is necessary that the contract be drawn in such a way that 
resort to the courts will not be necessary. cemetery cor- 
poration cannot afford to be sued, even should the decision 
be clearly in its favor, but in case a contract covers plants, 
shrubs, the renewal of monuments, etc., it is essential that 
it should not guarantee a particular plant or a particular kind 
of stone. Gardeners will tell you of plants so liable to dis- 
ease that their cost may hereafter become prohibitory, and 
quarries of particular stone may cease to operate. 
The basis to be used for determining the amount of de- 
posit required from individual lot holders is the cost of the 
work capitalized at three per cent. Concerning the deposits 
for the care of mausoleums, monuments, etc., the preliminary 
explanation covers this. If there are one hundred mauso- 
leums in a cemetery to be swept out once ' a week and to 
have their joints pointed, and the outside kept reasonably 
clean, the expense per mausoleum will be very much less 
than if there are only three in the cemetery. 
So far as I can ascertain the general opinion is that three 
per cent is a fair rate of interest on perpetual care funds. 
It is to be remembered that the management of the fund will 
cost in the vicinity of one-half of one per cent. The ac- 
tuaries of large insurance companies seem to be of the opin- 
ion that as inherited wealth increases the rate per cent will 
decrease, and that two and one-half per cent is all that may 
be expected in the next one hundred years. In this connec- 
tion it is also to be considered that should we have a period 
of unreasoning labor legislation, such as some of the British 
Colonies are said to have, the rate for labor may increase to 
such an extent as to impair the fund. It is not an answer to 
say that in democracy the next generation will correct these 
evils, the effect of the legislation may in the meantime be to 
destroy the greater part of the fund. 
It is legal to guarantee something in perpetuity. The ethics 
of the question would occupy several numbers of Park and 
Cemetery. J. C. Scorgie, Supt. 
