PARK AND CEMETERY. 
47 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department 
Duties of a Cemetery Superintendent 
at the Grave. 
What is the cemetery superintend- 
ent’s duty at the interment? — J. A. K., 
Mich. 
In the larger cemeteries the duties 
of superintending funerals is given to 
a special officer, known as a sexton or 
superintendent of interments. These 
duties at the grave are about the same 
for both large and small cemeteries, 
only in the smaller cemetery they are 
performed by the cemetery superin- 
tendent in person. After the funeral is 
within the gates it should be under the 
entire charge of the superintendent. 
He should see that the carriage driv- 
ers keep to the right of the avenues, 
stop at the proper place for unload- 
ing, keep the drivers from turning 
their carriages in the avenues, that is 
drive around the sections; he should 
see that the grave is ready, including 
such details as decorating or any oth- 
er special work that is ordered; see 
that the bearers carry the body in the 
proper direction and that it is placed 
in the right direction for lowering, in 
fact all the details of the funeral 
should be under his supervision. If 
the cemetery association does not 
have rules governing such work they 
should be adopted. The undertaker’s 
duty should end at the cemetery en- 
trance. Supt. 
Uniforms 
Do cemetery superintendents wear 
uniforms? — J. C. S. 
No; not as a rule in grounds of any 
size; perhaps in some small burying 
grounds, where the superintendent is 
known as a “sexton” they sometimes 
wear uniforms or partial uniforms. 
Killing Dandelions. 
From proceedings of American Association of 
Parle Superintendents 
We are troubled in Colorado with 
the turpentine beetle, we call it the 
augur bug in that country. He bores 
into the trees. The United States 
Government sent out at different 
times men to study this pest, scien- 
tific men, but they can not do any- 
thing. That is what I would like 
some of you to tell us about. They 
are denuding our forests. They are 
also troubled, like everybody else, 
with the dandelion. Is there any 
member here knows how to extermi- 
nate the dandelion? 
Prof. Walters, Manhattan, Kans.: 
We have made experiments in regard 
to the extermination of the dande- 
lion, on our campus at the State Ag- 
ricultural College at Manhattan. We 
have found that a small tool could be 
constructed that will take out the dan- 
delion; will kill it. It is a small shov- 
el, you might say, or spade having 
a blade about an inch and a half 
wide, scarcely that wide, having a 
straight handle to which is fastened 
a small gasoline tank. By filling this 
tank with gasoline, and by cutting 
the root of the dandelion, an inch 
or two below the leaves, as may be 
convenient, and being arranged with 
a spring on the bottom of the tank 
so that a small quantity of gasoline 
is discharged just when you stab the 
root it can be killed. We have tried 
this for several seasons and have 
found that it worked admirably. We 
do not kill all the dandelion roots, 
because the discharge is not always 
directed into the cut just as it ought 
to be. But it will kill a majority, and 
by going over the field a number of 
times during a season we can be 
reasonably sure of killing the roots, 
and in this manner a very small num- 
ber of dandelions are left. The dan- 
delion root cannot stand gasoline, 
benzine, or coal oil, any of these sub- 
stances can be used for that purpose, 
and attain the same result. 
How about carbolic acid? 
Professor Walters: We tried that 
too, a weak solution of carbolic acid. 
Mr. Hare: A mere matter of ac- 
cident a few years ago proved to me 
there was a method that could be used 
to kill dandelions. At a certain time 
we were spraying a lawn in Kansas 
City, Kansas, with nitrate of soda, 
or sprinkling it with nitrate of soda. 
The solution was strong, and it did 
burn the grass, but it killed every 
dandelion in that park. For four 
years following that there were no 
dandelions in that place. We were 
sprinkling with the nitrate of soda. 
The dandelion leaves curled up and 
disappeared. In your western coun- 
try where you have no grass I do 
not know but what it would be a 
good idea to plow the whole thing 
and start all over. I would not ad- 
vise that hardy treatment, after look- 
ing over some of the lawns in Den- 
ver and Salt Lake and the West, al- 
though I believe the nitrate of soda, 
being a food for plant life, your 
lawns would grow. It would kill the 
dandelion if it is put on at the right 
time. Take a warm day like this it 
would burn the leaves up. When you 
put the nitrate of soda on it seems 
to go down and gets at the roots. 
What do you use? 
Mr. Hare: Use an ordinary sprink- 
ling can. Just sprinkle it. 
Use a strong solution? 
Mr. Hare: 25 pounds to 50 gallons 
of water. We were trying several dif- 
ferent preparations on the lawn when 
we discovered this nitrate of soda 
gives the best results as a fertilizer 
and gave immediate results, and was 
effective for four years afterwards. 
For ordinary use on a lawn we would 
use about six ounces to three gallons 
of water, to sprinkle a ten by ten 
lawn. It makes a fine fertilizer, and 
helps in that way. 
Mr. Graham (Council Bluffs): We 
have tried two kinds of chemicals. 
Mr. Berry: I would like to ask an- 
other question. Has any person used 
copperas? I have tried copperas at 
intervals of ten days apart, as recom- 
mended by our State Agricultural col- 
lege, at Ft. Collins. It has certainly 
killed the leaves, and it has discolored 
the grass ; the grass has become al- 
most black, but where we tried it on 
one of our streets, we found hardly 
any detriment to the ground. I do 
not know of anything that has been 
known to thoroughly eradicate dan- 
delions. We as park men are ex- 
pected to set an example to our citi- 
zens in every city in the United States 
to do it. I think it is our duty to try 
and do so. I would like to know if any 
person has tried copperas? 
Mr. Byhauer: In Denver we had 
dandelions. We found by plowing up 
the whole lawn, turning it over about 
12 inches deep and letting it lie 
through the spring season they never 
came up after that. We have planted 
our place over, and we have no dan- 
delions in our new lawns. In some 
of the lawns that have been in four 
years the dandelions have not come 
back. We have not tried copperas. 
We plowed them under a foot deep 
in order to get them down far enough 
that they never came through. That 
is the only thing that we have been 
able to do successfully. 
Mr. Berry: He does not state that 
they have plenty of money to plow up 
those grounds. 
Mr. Byhauer: We found it a lot 
cheaper to plow up our lawns than to 
dig the dandelions up. 
