PARK AND CEMETERY. 
37 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department 
Cribbing for Graves. 
Editor Asked and Answered Dept.: In 
answer to Mount Zion Cemetery Co.'s in- 
quiry in your last issue, I will tell you 
how I have made a grave cribbing that 
does fine. I had some boards made, 1J4 
inches thick and 8 inches wide. The top 
ones I made into a square box, 1 / feet 
long and 34 inches wide inside. Then I 
had some pieces of iron made of lJi-inch 
wide strap iron, with an eyehole on one 
end and a hook on the other that I 
screwed on, two on each side and two on 
each end ; then I cut boards the same 
length as the ones in the box and put on 
the iron the same way. I start my graves 
so that the box will just set in. When 
you get down far enough, hook on the 
sides and then the ends set in so that they 
keep them in place, and the more it tries 
to cave the tighter they are. I use three 
boards below the box, and in this way I 
can dig a grave between two and don't 
have any trouble at all, and our ground 
is all gravel and stone, the worst kind to 
cave. This does not cost much, and I can 
recommend it to all superintendents. 
W. A. CoNKEY, 
Ware, Mass. Supt. of Cemeteries. 
Plans for Rest Houses Wanted. 
Editor Asked and Answered Dept. : We 
want a plan for a rest house or pavilion 
for our cemetery. Can you help us any 
with suggestions? We can put only about 
$800 into this house. H. A. Aldrich. 
Neoga, 111. 
Dear Sirs : — Our association is still talk- 
ing shelter house or a small chapel, and 
we hope to be able to build this summer 
something to cost from one to two thou- 
sand dollars. Can you give us any help 
as to plans? Have seen nothing in your 
magazine at so small a cost. 
Mrs. H. C. Johnston, 
Sec’y Ladies’ Evergreen Cemetery Assn. 
Superior, Neb. 
Park and Cemetery had quite an ex- 
tended article with a number of illustra- 
tions of small chapels and shelter houses 
in the issue of May, 1911, but this issue is 
now out of print. In this article Hare & 
Hare, Kansas City, Mo., offer to furnish 
working plans and specifications for the 
little rest house of theirs illustrated in 
this connection. 
We have occasionally other illustrations 
of chapels and receiving vaults, but this, 
article gives more information than any- 
thing else. 
Any of our readers who are interested 
in designing or building such shelter 
houses are invited to correspond with the 
inquirers above mentoned. 
Perpetual Care Forms. 
Editor Asked and Answered Dept. : In 
answer to request of your correspondent, 
I enclose copy of form used here for per- 
petual care fund. W. A. Conkey, 
Ware, Mass. Supt. of Cemeteries. 
The Cemetery Commissioners hereby certify that 
they approve of the sum of one hundred dollais as 
sufficient to warrant the Town assuming the preser- 
vation and care of Lot No in Section 
in Aspen Grove Cemetery, in, accordance with the 
following conditions: 
First. The Commissioners shall expend annually 
such sums of money, not exceeding four per cent, 
on the above named sum, as they shall deem 
necessary to keep in suitable condition and preser- 
vation the soil, grass and memorials on said lot 
Second. To suffer the surplus, if any, of the in- 
terst on the said sum to accumulate for such time 
as the said Commissioners may deem expedient, or 
in their discretion to apply the said surplus, or any 
part thereof, from time to time, to the ornamenta- 
tion and preservation of the said Cemetery. 
Third. That the said Town of Ware shall never 
be responsible in the premises, except for good 
faith and such reasonable diligence as may be re- 
quired of mere gratuitous agents. 
Cemetery 
Commissioners. 
Approved by 
The treasurer of the Town of Ware hereby ac- 
knowledge the receipt of one hundred dollars from 
• on the 
conditions above mentioned, which are hereby made 
a part of and included in this receipt. 
Treasurer. 
Ware, Mass., 191 
Preventing Scaling of Receiving Vault 
Walls. 
Editor Asked and Answered Dept. : I 
have read a good many articles in Park 
and Cemetery regarding the trouble con- 
tractors experience in constructing receiv- 
ing vaults and chapels, in such a way as to 
avoid expansion and contraction of mate- 
rial but nothing regarding the matter of 
finding a way to prevent the paint or other 
finish from flaking and scaling from the 
walls. This is a matter which has given 
us a great deal of trouble. We have re- 
peatedly had the walls refinished, only to 
see the finish strewn about the floors of 
the chape! and vaults after each winter. 
The construction is stone, with plaster in- 
side, and oil and lead finish. We have a 
hot-air furnace, but have not used it ex- 
cept when chapel was in use for a funeral, 
and are now considering the proposition of 
maintaining a steady (low) fire through- 
out the winter as a more economical plan 
than the cleaning up of walls and repaint- 
ing them every spring. In your opinion, 
would we find this plan successful or can 
you make a suggestion regarding some 
more practical plan ? Chapel has been kept 
closed except as above stated, except that 
on clear, bright days we occasionally open 
windows and doors during the middle of 
the day. — F. W. T., Conn. 
To make a specific reply to the forego- 
ing communication and suggest a remedy 
particularly applicable in the premises, one 
should know more of the particulars. The 
correspondent does not say whether the 
plaster is in immediate contact with the 
stone walls of the chapel — that is, plas- 
tered on the walls — or is on lathing in the 
usual way, but as instances of oil paint 
scaling from lath and plastered walls, even 
in unheated rooms, are very rare, except 
when the paint has become very, old and 
dry, and as the correspondent’s trouble is 
of unusual occurrence, it is perhaps safe 
to assume that the plaster is in direct con- 
tact with the stone walls or possibly on a 
solid brick backing or lining. In any 
event, in the absence of fuller informa- 
tion we may perhaps profitably d,iscuss the 
subject in a general way, from which the 
correspondent may possibly deduce a rem- 
edy worthy of his consideration and adop- 
tion. 
Omitting a discussion of exceptional 
cases beyond a mere allusion to them, I 
may say in a general way that trouble of 
this nature is due to two principal causes ; 
first, the presence of excessive moisture 
due to condensation or saturation of the 
walls from the outside or leakage from 
the roof finding its way into the interior 
of the wall, and, second, to the presence 
of salts in the mortar or brick, which, if 
subjected to any considerable amount of 
moisture, are decomposed and almost im- 
mediately find their way to the surface. 
In the first instance, if the moisture or 
water is free from alkali or other salts 
the paint is gradually detached and forced 
off, the trouble being first made manifest 
by blisters, which will be found filled with 
water ; sloughing soon follows. The salts, 
on the other hand, usually decompose the 
paint in a very short time, which is de- 
tached in dry scales or mingling with the 
efflorescence of the salts falls to the floor, 
as described by the correspondent, or is 
easily brushed off. Nearly all kinds of 
mortar and brick are more or less im- 
pregnated with these salts. They may 
never manifest themselves if the walls re- 
main perfectly dry, but they will become 
active and appear where there is moisture 
in the material, the amount of efflorescence 
usually varying in quantity according to 
the degree of moisture. Stone and solid 
brick walls, more especially the former, 
are apt to draw and transmit to the in- 
terior in certain temperatures and condi- 
tions of the atmosphere a considerable 
amount of moisture. This may be arrested 
by an insulation or air space separting the 
exterior walls from the plaster or finish 
of the interior, but if the plaster is di- 
rectly on the wall the moisture will readily 
penetrate that and come to the surface. 
The ordinary style of lath and plaster 
usually proves a preventative, although in- 
stances have been known in unheated 
