491 
PARK AND 
lively estimated to produce an income sufficient to maintain 
the cemetery in future as well, at least, as it is maintained now, 
having in mind falling interest rates and possibly rising labor 
and other expense. It would seem that lo cents per foot 
should be a minimum for the cheaper class of cemeteries, and 
25 cents for the average better class cemeteries. A percent- 
age to produce this amount from the cheapest lots should be 
adopted, and the application of the same percentage to the 
higher priced lots will harm no one, and add materially to this 
average. 
One can well call to mind the advice of a character in fiction 
“Git a plenty while yer a gittin” and apply it here. 
In cases where the cemetery management assumes the pres- 
ent care of the grounds, a less amount may be set aside, pro- 
vided the funds are allowed to accumulate until they amount 
to $7,500 per cemetery acre (25 cents per foot on an estimated 
30,000 feet of salable lots per acre) this, of course, for the 
average better class cemetery. 
Interest rates. — In most of the reports 3 per cent is fixed 
as the rate used in making estimates. Certain securities yield- 
ing less than 3 per cent are now eagerly bought, and the tend- 
ency of interest rates is steadily downward. Account must 
be taken of possible loss, and of the levying of taxes on such 
funds in future. Expenses may continue to increase as they 
have of late years, although such increase is artificial and will 
likely not endure through many years. Three per cent is un- 
doubtedly too high for absolute safety, 2)/^ per cent would be 
better and it is no sure thing that 2 per cent will not, before 
many years, be all that can safely be counted on. 
The contract. — Where all lots are sold under perpetual care 
no contract is necessary except for special care payments, the 
conditions adopted and published by the management, apply- 
ing to all lots. In the case of special funds, however, a con- 
tract is needed. 
It should be concise and definite, so far as securing the car- 
rying out of the spirit of the trust and the safeguarding of all 
proper interests of the person making the deposit, and his 
heirs. 
It should disclaim any requirement for separate investment 
of funds. 
It should allow a reasonable part of the income to be trans- 
ferred to the general fund as a payment for the extra expense 
of administering the trust, and because uncared for or poorly 
cared for places in the cemetery are a damage to every indi- 
vidual lot. 
It should allow some part of the income to be transferred to 
the contingent fund. 
It should bind the trustees only to such care in the handling 
of funds as might be reasonably required of unpaid agents. 
It should not be so worded as to be possibly construed 
as binding the trustees to expend more than the actual in- 
come. 
Its wording should not be such as to prevent accumulation 
in case of emergency. 
It should contain a clause similar to the following : 
“Recognizing that changes in conditions will occur in fu- 
ture years, the extent of which it is now impossible to fore- 
see, there is reserved to the trustees the fullest possible liberty 
of action in construing the terms of this trust, and in applying 
the income of the above sum to the care, maintenance and bet- 
terment of the above mentioned lot, the graves therein, the 
appurtenances thereto, and the surroundings thereof.” 
The Missouri Cemetery Improvement Association, mention 
of which was made in a recent issue, appears to be having a 
hard time in getting an ordinance through the St. Joseph, Mo., 
council, permitting the location of its new cemetery. 
CEMETERY. 
Atmual reports or extracts from thevi, historical sketches, 
descriptive circulars, photographs of improvements or dis' 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department. 
The 69th annual report of Rural Cemetery, Worcester, 
Mass., shows a total amount for the perpetual care fund of 
$93,622.93, an increase for the year of $1,309.35. The general 
fund had a cash balance on December 30 amounting to $6,- 
379.^4. making total funds of $101,311.32. During the year 10 
deeds of gift were received for perpetual care amounting to 
$950, and lots were sold to the amount of $1,900. There were 
16 vaults built, 13 monument foundations laid, 23 headstones 
set. There were 87 burials in 1905. 
* * * * 
The Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburg, Pa., reports fair busi- 
ness for 1905. Nineteen and a half acres of land were im- 
proved and there was expended for such work by the cemetery 
$34,217-96, while the lot owners expended $49,347.54. The lot 
sales amounted to $68,000.50, and there was paid for labor 
$14,138.71) with an average number of men employed, 26. To 
the endowment fund there was added $1,000 and $16,396.18 to 
the fund for improvement and maintenance. Cash on hand 
December 31, 1905, $128,996.10. Among the improvements 
were 4,000 feet of new roads. The lot owners number 3,203, 
and the total interments amount to 14,451. The same man- 
agement was continued for igo6. 
* * * 
A writ of certiorari was obtained last month by the property 
owners of Acquackanonk Township, N. J., in an appeal against 
granting an ordinance giving the right to the East Ridgelawn 
and West Ridgelawn cemetery companies to maintain a ceme- 
tery in the center of that township. The case was to have 
come up at the February term of the Supreme Court. Counsel 
for the property owners maintain that the two cemeteries are 
practically one and that the law provides that no cemetery 
company is entitled to more than 250 acres, while in order to 
overcome that obstacle the two cemeteries have been organ- 
ized. The ordinance was granted both by the Township Com- 
mittee and Board of Health. 
^ ^ 
On page 442, December issue, in a note referring to Cedar 
Grove Cemetery, New London, Conn., it states “that 25 cents 
per square foot” should be set aside for perpetual care. The 
president, Mr. Frederic S. Newcomb, writes that this should 
have read, “not less than 25 cents,” the intention being to pro- 
vide enough. The same note states that the perpetual care 
fund now amounts to $3,600, whereas it should have read that 
$3,600 was received for that fund during the past year. The 
total fund now approaches $25,000, mostly received in recent 
years. Under the will of the late Miss Anne Beckwith, a valu- 
able block of real estate was bequeathed to the cemetery, 
valued at some $30,000, the income of which is to be set aside 
until it reaches $10,000, which sum is to be expended in provid- 
ing a suitable rest house for visitors to the grounds. There- 
after the income, after maintaining this rest house in repair 
and the lot of the testator in proper condition, is to be avail- 
able for general improvement. 
