PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
PUBLISHED BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
R. J. HAIGHT, President H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and General Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
SUBSCRIPTION TERA1S: United States and Possessions, Mexico and Cuba, one year, $2.00; two years, $3.50: three years, $5.00; ffve years, $8.00. Canada and other countries 
$2.50 a year. Single copies , 25 cents. Copy for advertisements and reading matter should reach us by ihe first of the month. 
MARCH, 1914 
EDITORIAL 
VOL. XXIV No. 1 
Value of Good 
The direct effect that changing bad roads into good roads 
has upon land value and the general economic welfare of a 
community is shown in several concrete illustrations gathered 
by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The Department 
has just issued a statement on the subject, based upon a mass 
of information gathered by the Office of Public Roads, which 
is making a special study of the economic effect of road im- 
provement in the country. According to data gathered, where 
good roads replace bad ones the values of farm lands bor- 
dering on the roads increase to such an extent that the cost 
of road improvement is equalized, if not exceeded. The gen- 
eral land values, as well as farm values, show marked ad- 
vances, following the improvement of roads. As the roads in no 
Cemetery 
The promotion of cemetery development as a commercial prop- 
osition, and the financial entanglements that have occasionally 
resulted, have brought about strong sentiment in several instances 
for the taxation of cemeteries. Two recent attempts- to tax for 
street improvements and for sewers are reported in detail on 
another page, and should be carefully studied by all cemetery 
officials. The cemetery that devotes all of its revenue to the de- 
Country Roads 
way affect soil fertility or quality of the farm, advances are 
due essentially to the decrease in the cost of hauling produce 
to market or shipping point. Farms are now regarded as 
plants for the business of farming, and any reduction in their 
profits through unnecessarily heavy costs for hauling on bad 
roads naturally reduces their capitalization into values. The 
automobile also has begun to be an important factor in in- 
creasing rural values where good roads are introduced. Im- 
migration is particularly marked where road conditions are 
favorable; in fact, the figures of the Department seem to 
indicate that good roads indirectly increase the demand for 
rural property. 
Taxation 
velopment, beautifying and care of the grounds is in most cases 
freed of taxes by its charter, and the erroneous impression that 
all cemeteries are amassing enormous profits has been stimulated 
by financial operations in cemetery development. The question 
of taxation is a many-sided one, and every cemetery should care- 
fully study every aspect of its relation to taxation and to local 
and state laws governing the rights and privileges of cemeteries. 
Water Requirements of Plants 
A review of the literature on the water requirement of plants, 
Bulletin 285 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture, in its 96 pages, supplies an extended bibliography 
of the subject and presents the results of the leading experi- 
ments and will be of unusual interest to park and cemetery 
planters. Among the topics considered are the effect of soil mois- 
ture content, soil type, cultivation, soil mass, fertilizers, previous 
crops, soil temperature, air temperature, shade, air humidity, car- 
bon dioxide content of the air, parasites, the relative leaf area, 
frequent cutting, defoliation, amount of growth or number of 
plants per unit of soil mass, and the bearing of the age of the 
plant on its water requirement. In addition, there is a considera- 
tion of the water requirement of different kinds of plants, and 
the determination of water requirement of crops under field con- 
ditions. The bulletin is the work of Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, 
biophysicist, and Dr. H. L. Shantz, plant physiologist, Bureau of 
Plant Industry, LI. S. Department of Agriculture. 
Editorial Notes 
A property owner in St. Joseph, Mo., has brought suit to test 
the constitutionality of the new park district act under which 
this city is planning extensive park developments. In the city’s 
motion for a rehearing of the Prospect Park case by the Supreme 
Court, Frank B. Fulkerson, city counselor, and W. B. Norris, re- 
tained as special counsel in the case, appealed to the court to pass 
upon the constitutionality of St. Joseph’s park and boulevard 
law, so that the city will know how to proceed with the pending 
beautification projects. The members of the Park Board ex- 
pressed the opinion at their meeting at the city hall recently that 
the judges of the Supreme Court did not differentiate between 
park districts and benefit districts in preparing their opinion, 
which, it is conceded, will result in the invalidation of the Pros- 
pect Park project, unless the court grants a rehearing in the case 
of Mrs. Mary C. Pash against the city. 
A national arboretum is being established in Rock Creek Na- 
tional Park, District of Columbia. Eventually it will contain all 
American tree species which will thrive there. 
The total amount of land purchased in the Eastern states for 
federal forests is nearly 800,000 acres. So far the principal work- 
on these areas has involved their protection against forest fires. 
Canada has 23,000,000 acres in timber reserves, as compared 
with 187,000,000 acres in the national forests of the United States. 
In trying to find uses for blight-killed chestnut it has been 
found that it cannot be utilized for crating stone. Quarry own- 
ers say that chestnut wood leaves an indelible stain on the marble 
or granite. 
Railroads caused nearly half the forest fires in Colorado and 
Wyoming last year, and almost one-sixth were set by lightning. 
In California lightning started more than half, with railroads a 
comparatively insignificant cause. 
Minnesota has a forested area of 28,000,000 acres, the largest 
of any state east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Canada has established a forest products laboratory in con- 
nection with McGill University at Montreal, on the lines of the 
LTnited States institution of the same sort at the University of 
Wisconsin. 
Tree planting on national forests has to be confined to compara- 
tively short intervals in spring and fall. In spring it starts when 
the snow melts and stops with the drying out of the ground; in 
the fall it comes between fall rains and first snowfall. 
