is 44.2%, the death rate was 23 per thou- 
sand (17.8 for whites and 29.5 for colored). 
In New Orleans, where the negro popula- 
tion is 26.4%, the rate is 21.3 per thousand 
(17.2 for whites and 32.7 for colored). In 
Washington City, where bad housing con- 
ditions among the poorer classes, especially 
the negroes, are well known, the rate is 
19.6 for the city as a whole. The colored 
population is 28.7% of the total and the 
death rate among them is. 29.1 per thou- 
sand as compared with 15.8 among the 
whites, almost double. 
Some of the Northern cities show an in- 
teresting comparison for the year 1910. 
New York was 15.4 per thousand, Chicago 
15.5, Kansas City 16.3, Detroit 16.7, Denver 
15.4, Omaha 13.8, Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, 13.5, and Boston 17.4. These cities 
show a wide range of living and working- 
conditions in respect to industrial occupa- 
tions, congestion of population, climate, 
parks, playgrounds, etc. ; and yet the range 
in death rate is very small. Some of the 
younger rapidly growing cities of the Pa- 
cific Coast show a remarkably low rate 
which is no doubt temporary and due both 
to the fact that there is little congestion 
or bad housing as yet, and that the popula- 
tion is largely made up of people in the 
more vigorous ages where the death rate 
is very low, and with a very small per- 
centage of very young or very old people, 
the ages where the death rate is high. 
Spokane, Washington, is about 9.8 per 
thousand, Seattle 9.6, and Portland, Ore- 
gon, 10.7. It would seem, therefore, that 
about 15% would be a liberal average rate 
in the classes which would contribute to a 
modern cemetery of the class we are to 
consider in this article. 
The growth of a city in the future is 
always an uncertainty. However, the best 
way of arriving at any definite conclusions 
in this regard is to study the growth of 
larger cities of similar character, situation 
and advantages from the time they had the 
same population as the city in question. 
The increase of population of these cities 
can be platted graphically on a chart and 
an average curve drawn. In the accom- 
panying diagram Kansas City is taken for 
an example and shown in relation to other 
cities which are similarly located in not 
having larger cities within 250 or 300 miles, 
and have similar conditions otherwise. 
Another factor which has to be consid- 
ered is the tendency in the larger cities to 
ship many bodies back to the smaller towns 
and rural communities, where the family 
ties of the deceased may be. In cities of 
200,000 to 300,000 as many as 30% may be 
sent away for burial. 
Burial in the ground is the almost uni- 
versal method of the disposition of the 
human dead, a well established custom 
based upon centuries of tradition and reli- 
gious influence, and therefore likely to be 
slow to change. Cremation is undoubtedly 
becoming more popular, especially in the 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
larger cities, but has as yet made no appre- 
ciable change in the totals. Other meth- 
ods more economical in the use of space 
than the grave in the ground may come 
into use, but at present the percentage is 
very small, almost negligible. 
In a well designed cemetery of the mod- 
ern type, economically arranged, the land 
devoted to entrance, roads, paths, orna- 
mental and reserve ground, lakes, adminis- 
trative and service buildings, such as office, 
lodge, chapel, public vaults, greenhouses, 
stables, etc., will amount to about three- 
sevenths of the total on an eighty acre 
tract, leaving for sale approximately 5,000 
lots of 400 square feet each or about 62 
lots per acre. Of course as the size of the 
cemetery varies, the area required for the 
entrance, building, and service portions be- 
ing more or less fixed, the percentage of 
salable land remaining will vary slightly. 
In a cemetery of 40 acres the proportion 
might be slightly less than the 62 lots per 
acre, while in a 200 acre tract a somewhat 
greater number than 62 lots per acre might 
well be expected, provided topographical 
conditions did not cause waste land or an 
unusual number of roads. In considering 
some of the cemeteries designed by the 
writers it was found that one of 13 acres, 
more than amply provided with roads and 
reserve ground, had 39 lots per acre, one 
of 31 acres, rather sparingly provided with 
roads and reserve ground, had 72.5 lots 
per acre, one of 39 acres, showing a good 
average use of the land, had barely 60 lots 
per acre, and one of 160 acres, with consid- 
erable rugged waste land, had 61.5 lots per 
acre. 
On an average ten burials are made to 
each lot of 400 square feet, which size is 
assumed as a unit, pending further discus- 
sion of the subject in later articles. This 
would allow 620 burials to the acre over 
the whole cemetery. In many cemeteries 
or parts of cemeteries, in the single grave 
sections at least, twice this number are 
buried, but to offset this, many family lots 
are held for years with only one or two 
graves, and perhaps are never more than 
half filled, the remaining area being pre- 
served for lawn or used for planting, or 
monument. Then there is the large lot of 
the very wealthy, equalling from four to 
ten times or more the size of the unit we 
have assumed. In some of our larger 
cities many of the wealthy families have 
lots of over 10,000 square feet used as a 
setting for a mausoleum, monument, or 
otherwise improved, but with comparatively 
few interments. Lodges and societies often 
purchase large tracts which are not entirely 
used for many years. In many cases sales 
to individuals are made years in advance 
of any interments, based wholly upon pro- 
vision for the future. This is especially 
true in cemeteries owned by individuals or 
corporations, whose main object is the 
sale of land by more or less intensive busi- 
ness methods. 
355 
However, we can see that 620 interments 
to the acre would be the average limit of 
ultimate use for the higher class cemeteries 
at least. As a matter of interest, but of 
no special importance to the article, it 
might be stated parenthetically that with 
approximately 1,200,000 deaths per year in 
the United States it is requiring nearly 
2.000 acres of cemetery land or about three 
square miles, sy rely a large amount of val- 
uable land in the suburbs of our towns and 
cities. Statisticians estimate that in 1960 
the population will be 200,000,000, more 
than twice the present, and while the death 
rate may decrease, the requirements each 
year will be approximately twice as great 
as at present. Taking 1960 as an average 
for the next century it would appear that 
in the neighborhood of 400,000 acres of 
land will be needed, a tract of land 25 miles 
square. Such figures can be considered 
thoughtfully with no injustice to our loved 
ones who have passed beyond this plane of 
mortal existence. 
In concluding this consideration of sta- 
tistics we might well apply some of the 
figures to a small town or city, say for 
example of 20.000 ; not suburban to any 
larger city. It might be assumed that in 
such a city the number of bodies shipped 
out would equal the number shipped in ; 
that the per capita wealth would not be 
very great, and that the death rate would 
be about 15 per thousand. At this rate the 
deaths would be about 300 each year, re- 
quiring a total space equal to 30 lots of 10 
graves each or one-half acre of the ceme- 
tery area. Therefore, a cemetery of 80 
acres would last the community 160 years 
if the population remained the same. The 
demand for family lots, however, in ad- 
vance of use or in excess of the area 
needed for actual use would probably make 
the yearly sales from three to five times 
greater and decrease the length of time of 
sale by that much, making the active period 
of sale in such a cemetery 50 years or less. 
Again, such a community, if advantage- 
ously situated, might reasonably be ex- 
pected to increase in population at least 
50% each ten years, which would make a 
city in excess of 56,000 at the end of 25 
years; using 84 lots per year, or about 
150.000 at the end of 50 years, using 225 
lots. The average use throughout the 50 
years would be about 100 lots per year, 
or the entire cemetery of 5,000 lots would 
be filled in 50 years instead of 160. With 
the cemetery entirely filled in 50 years, the 
available land would no doubt be sold for 
future use by the end of 25 years or less. 
When the land was completely or practic- 
ally sold out, even though the cemetery 
would not be filled with graves for years 
to come, provision would have to be made 
for a new cemetery or an extension to the 
old one for the use of the coming genera- 
tions. 
(To be continued.) 
