260 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
dangerous trees is the only safeguard. It 
is now a part of the regular routine of our 
guard to report such trees, and after veri- 
fication the forester at once removes them. 
Indeed, before replanting an insufficiently 
covered forest hillside we have found it 
saved later disasters to remove or top even 
slightly dangerous trees as a safeguard 
against windfalls. As improvement in the 
water supply, mechanical condition and fer- 
tility of the soil is of vital importance, we 
dynamite the holes to loosen the sub-soil, 
use bonemeal and manure liberally, and 
make V-shaped depressions about the trees 
when planting, to catch the rain as it runs 
-off the slopes. Where planting is done in 
the autumn, we reverse this last process, 
hilling up the ground some fifteen inches 
high above the trunk. By this means the 
trees are kept firm without staking and the 
frost action minimized. The following 
•spring the ground is leveled and the de- 
pression formed. We have greatly de- 
creased our percentage of loss in planting 
hardwoods in the autumn by this method. 
As the public has an inherent love of 
climbing up and down these steep slopes, 
we try to meet this need by numerous trails 
up and down them, formed by rough 
flights of steps made of split logs five to 
six feet long, pinned in place and filled be- 
hind with earth or cinders to form the 
treads. As the wood is at hand the cost 
is trifling and the length of life surprising. 
We then fill in with undergrowth close to 
the trails. In our planting we rely largely 
on stock from our own nursery and plant 
a variety of sizes to avoid cropping the 
woods in an unnatural manner. Aside 
from the European beech, which we use 
in preference to the native species, owing 
to its greater resistance to the aphis, our 
native trees have given best results, all 
things considered. 
In the vicinity of railroads and in the 
large forest area of the Wissahickon the 
fire problem is a serious one. So numer- 
ous were the fires and so serious was the 
damage that a mounted guard now patrols 
during the danger periods the smaller 
woodlands which line the railroad yards. 
A system of fire trails, which serves also 
as bridle paths, has been established in the 
Wissahickon section, with its hundreds of 
acres of unbroken forests, and a force of 
twelve forest rangers created to guard it 
and the other large outlining forest areas. 
Two small chemical engines are also 
maintained in the heart of the forest to 
check more serious conflagrations. Our 
rangers, while under the direction of the 
officers of the park guard with their ad- I 
mirable system of military discipline, are | 
not uniformed and are required in addition 
to patrolling and fire-fighting to perform j 
such minor forest work as removing wind- J 
falls and clearing the trails. 
To preserve natural woodlands under j 
city conditions is a costly and difficult 
work, perhaps the most difficult of all 
park maintenance, and our funds are far 
too small to handle the situation properly. 
But interest in it is steadily growing and 
spreading to all departments of the city 
government, so that now we find the city 
engineers deflecting streets and sewers to 
save forest growths on areas likely to be 
acquired for park purposes. No artificial 
park landscape, even though planned by a 
forester hand, has ever approached the no- 
ble dignity and infinitely satisfying loveli- 
ness of our Eastern forests, and surely 
none of these is fairer than our Wissa- 
hickon, so we feel they are worth all and . 
more than they cost to preserve. 
MONUMENTS AND OTHER MEMORIALS 
An address before the Convention of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents at St. 
Louis , October 6, by James Currie, Superintendent, Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
In response to the kind invitation of our 
esteemed friend, the president of our asso- 
ciation, to speak to you at this time on 
some subject of my choosing, I decided to 
supplement the address I was then pre- 
paring for the convention of the National 
Retail Monument Dealers’ Association held 
in Milwaukee August 17 to 20. The sub- 
ject assigned to me on that occasion, “The 
Monument and Its Surroundings,” afforded 
me an opportunity of appealing to monu- 
ment dealers for their co-operation towards 
the improvement of monumental architect- 
ure, more particularly in its relation to the 
landscape of the cemetery. 
While admonishing them to observe the 
principles involved and use the influence 
of their profession in efforts to assist their 
clients in the selection of suitable memori- 
als, I was deeply conscious of the fact that 
the present deplorable condition of many 
of our cemeteries with respect to the num- 
ber and character of monumental struc- 
tures which so obtrusively mar the land- 
scape and offend our sense of beauty is 
chargeable in large measure to the man- 
agement of cemeteries, who because of in- 
difference or hopelessness accepted a situa- 
tion which appeared and unalterably asso- 
ciated with conditions in the cemetery, 
seemingly precluding any material improve- 
ment. I think we will concede that if 
cemetery officials had been more impressed 
with landscape beauty and had cultivated a 
better understanding and higher apprecia- 
tion of monumental art and its relation to 
environment and had endeavored to inter- 
est lot owners in its principles, we would 
today have fewer overcrowded and dilapi- 
dated cemeteries. 
Impressed as I have been for many years 
with the responsibility resting on the man- 
agement of the cemetery in this connec- 
tion, I was prompted to adopt this theme 
for my address, not unmindful, however, of 
the fact that the monument has furnished 
a topic for consideration and discussion at 
several conventions of our association, but 
in the hope that I may be able to submit 
some thoughts from an angle perhaps new 
and helpful to some of my hearers to war- 
rant a recurrence to a subject with which 
so many of you are already quite familiar 
and perhaps no longer harassed by the 
problems it presents. 
To distinguish between the two terms 
expressed in the title of my subject, which 
are in a sense synonymous, I wish to ex- 
plain that I use the term monument in ref- 
erence to a structure dedicated to the fam- 
ily and usually more pretentious in size, 
style and beauty than the more simple and 
less obtrusive memorial erected at an indi- 
vidual grave. 
Many of our best authorities on ceme- 
tery planning find it difficult to harmonize 
monumental structures with their concep- 
tion of the ideal cemetery, which they 
visualize as a park-like enclosure dedi- 
cated to the dead for a final sleeping place 
as the name implies, so beautiful, quiet and 
restful in its aspect as to afford not only 
comfort and consolation to the bereaved, 
but a certain degree of pleasurable antici- j 
pation to all who contemplate the hour 
when they, too, shall join the great ma- 
jority. 
In the opinion of advocates of the ideal 
cemetery, Nature must reign supreme, and 
no discordant feature, such as monuments I; 
or other artificial structures, must be suf- i 
fered to invade its precincts. The sim- > 
plicity, beauty, dignity, permanency and 
economy suggested in the plan is worthy of 
our most serious consideration. How to 
attain or approximate this ideal in view of \ 
prevailing opinions and present-day cem- 
etery requirements is the problem confront- I 
ing the management of every cemetery in 
the country. 
Beautiful scenery in the cemetery is won- j 
derfully appealing and helpful. It diverts 
the mind and tends to dispel the shadows - 
of death and alleviate sorrow and despair. 
It is conducive to pleasure and promotes 
cheerfulness, inspiration and happiness. 
Appreciating in the highest degree the 
sylvan beauty and restful quiet the ideal 
cemetery would afford, and deploring the 
stone-yard aspect of cemeteries in general, 
I could wish with all my heart that the 
simplicity and beauty of the ideal could be 
consistently created and maintained, but 
appreciating that laudable sentiment per- 
meating and animating the human mind j 
which finds expression in the time-honored 
custom of erecting monuments and tomb- 
stones and beautifying the graves of the 
