philadelphuses, high bush cranberries, rosa 
rugosas, spireas and Japanese barberries 
may be used. The forest trees should be 
American elm, green ash or hackberry. 
Avoid box elder and cottonwood, includ- 
ing its aliases, Norway poplar and Carolina 
poplar. 
On a sixty foot residence street not 
more than thirty feet should be devoted to 
roadway. This will leave fifteen feet on 
each side for parking. If the sidewalk is 
along the lot boundaries the street trees 
should be set ten feet out from the street 
lines thirty feet apart in the row. Flower- 
ing shrubs may be set between the trees 
with good effect, to be removed when the 
permanent trees have attained some size. 
In many cases a narrower roadway than 
thirty feet is advisable. In nearly all cases 
roadways are too wide. The parts of the 
street not used for roadway and sidewalks 
should be seeded to bluegrass and white 
clover, and treated as a lawn. The nar- 
rower the roadways are the less trouble 
there will be from the dust raised by the 
prairie winds. 
If there is vacant ground about the city 
watertank, clean it up and get it into 
grass. A plantation of shrubs will be in 
good taste about the structure itself, with 
perhaps a bed of perennials. If the site is 
less than a block of land, a border of 
shrubs may well be introduced on the side 
away from the street, making the border 
thicker where there are barns or outbuild- 
ings to be concealed. Perhaps there will 
be room for a few neat growing evergreens, 
such as the Colorado spruce (Picea pung- 
ens) or the Black Hills spruce, or for a 
silver foliaged tree, like the Russian olive. 
The public buildings will come in for 
treatment. Street trees should be planted 
as suggested above. Walks should be laid 
in the direction of the heaviest travel. If 
the grounds are large a few evergreens of 
the kinds indicated should be planted 
toward the corners of the grounds. As a 
general rule, all other plantings should be 
toward the borders of the grounds. If 
there are unsightly buildings anywhere on 
the grounds, mask them by planting lilacs, 
tall caraganas and bush honeysuckles about 
them. If the buildings are of stone or 
common brick, plant Ampelopsis Engle- 
mannii about them and let it run up the 
walls. Large shrubs, such as lilacs, phila- 
delphuses or tree caraganas might be 
planted at the corners of the buildings. 
Mask the foundations with small shrubs 
like the Japan barberry, or with such herbs 
as Polygonum Sieboldii or Polygonum 
amplexicaule, taking care not to obstruct 
the windows, for these herbs are rampant 
growers. 
The public square will need more radical 
treatment, but do not make the mistake of 
planting it full of forest trees. Leave an 
open place in the center. Of course there 
will be the street trees outside, and per- 
haps a few evergreens may be introduced 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
towards the corners or toward the sides 
if there is an unpleasant view that should 
be cut off. The Austrian, or black, pine of 
Europe does well on the prairies and is the 
best looking hardy pine. The rock pine 
(Pinus scopulorum) from the foothills of 
the Rocky Mountains is very hardy, but it 
is too straggling in its habit to be admitted 
into a public square. The Mugho pine, an 
European shrub, may be planted and will 
remain a shrub for many years. One or 
two silvery leaved trees, like the Russian 
olive, may be planted in the borders, with 
the Japanese tree lilac, and the Manchur- 
ian lilac (Syringa villosa). These are all 
rampant growers. Smaller shrubs, such as 
spireas, barberries, viburnums, may be 
planted in front of them or alternate with 
them, taking care not to be too formal. 
The place for hardy flowers, peonies, irises, 
phlox, hardy chrysanthemums, etc., is 
toward the center of the grounds, sur- 
rounded by a well kept bluegrass sod. 
' If the town is in a hilly location and 
there are banks of raw earth anywhere to 
be covered, there is nothing better than 
lilacs to cover them. They will grow on 
a very steep slope if care is taken to set 
them in the lower angle of V-shaped 
ditches to lead the water that falls on the 
slope toward them. And when they are in 
bloom people will stop and wonder at their 
beauty. 
If the town is by a lake shore or river 
bank, it is doubly fortunate. No time 
should be lost in acquiring the land there 
for a public park. If there is a fringe of 
trees on the site, it should be preserved 
15 
and treated with reverence. No landscape 
gardener has yet been able to rival nature 
in artistic planting. Do not send the street 
commissioner into it with his brush hook. 
For the most part let the underbrush grow. 
Open only necessary walks and drives, and 
do not under any circumstances fill the 
woodland with the works of man. If plant- 
ing must be done, and often it must, do not 
overlook our native trees. Bur oak, Amer- 
ican elm, cork-bark elm, red elm, green ash, 
hackberry, basswood, iron-wood, coffee- 
tree, walnut, butternut, bitternut, silver 
maple, willows and cottonwoods will all 
have an appropriate place. The willows 
and cottonwoods will be at home near the 
water. The basswoods and maple are well 
adapted to rich ravines. The iron-wood 
will thrive on the north slope of hills. The 
hackberry is adapted to bench lands, while 
the green ash and the bur oak will grow 
anywhere. The borders of woodlands 
should be set with native shrubs, such as 
our beautiful hawthorns, blackhaw, wahoo, 
high bush cranberry, red-berried elder, 
sumac, gooseberry, wild currant, the wood- 
land, or red twigged, rose, cornel and the 
shrubby upland willows. The only ever- 
green native to the prairies is the Virginia 
juniper; but the Black Hills spruce and the 
Colorado spruce are hardy, and among the 
hardy pines we have the black pine of 
Europe, the Scotch pine, and the rock pine 
(Pinus scopulorum) from the Black Hills 
and from the Rocky Mountains. A park is 
for rest and quiet. It should be crowning 
work of our efforts to get back to nature. 
Do not spoil it with carpet bedding, band 
stands, or other obtrusive work of man. 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department 
More About Mausoleum Construction. 
The questions asked by A. B. N. in your 
November issue and the answers thereto 
have attracted the attention of the writer. 
The building of a mausoleum is not a 
serious problem to the average man. At 
least, he does not so consider it. The glib- 
tongued salesman frankly assures his cus- 
tomer that the building will stand for all 
time. He has regard for only one thing, 
“Kill the order.” 
There are certain fundamental principles 
involved in the construction of a stone 
building that is never heated on the inside 
that are absolutely essential to the stabil- 
ity of the building. Most of these have been 
known for years, some of them for ages. 
Yet you will find them violated repeatedly 
by those who are known as the best maso- 
leum builders in the country. Why? Noth- 
ing more or less than the “Kill the order” 
spirit, as far as my observations go. 
How many sets of plans would be drawn 
as they are if the builder had to give a 
guarantee that the building would stand 
for 1,000 years and it were possible that 
he had his lease of life extended so that 
he would be responsible for it? A great 
many will say 1,000 years is out of the 
question. Decidedly not; it ought to be 
only a beginning for our hardest granites. 
To get back to the subject. The ques- 
tions asked by A. B. N. constitute only 
minor problems in mausoleum construc- 
tion. It matters little whether the caskets 
are wood or metal, whether the crypts are 
drained or ventilated, if the whole exterior 
of the building goes to pieces in a short 
time. 
By asking the questions he clearly indi- 
cates that he is a beginner. The only ad- 
vice to give him in justice to himself, in 
justice to his customer and the cemetery irt 
which the work is to be erected is this : 
Should he have a customer, or in the 
future finds one, positively do not attempt 
the plans of even a simple building. Get 
the best monumental architect he can find ; 
not merely a designer, but someone who 
thoroughly understands construction and 
one whose conscience has not for years 
been a captive of the “kill the order” spirit. 
