PARK AND CEMETERY. 
24 ? 
NEW ENGLAND CEMETERY ASSOCIATION MEETING 
The New England Cemetery Asso- 
ciation held one of the largest meet- 
ings in its history at the Quincy 
House in Boston, October 14. There 
were about thirty-eight present, and 
there were many discussions of inter- 
est in addition to two formal papers, 
and a banquet following the business 
meeting. The association is in a flour- 
ishing condition, gaining in member- 
ship and interest every meeting. 
The regular business of the asso- 
ciation was transacted, after which J. 
C. Scorgie, of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, 
Cambridge, gave a report on the Na- 
tional Association held at Milwaukee 
which was of much interest to those who 
had not attended the meeting. 
H. S. Adams, of Forest Hill Cem- 
etery, Jamaica Plain, Mass.; also read 
a paper on how he has repaired his 
old lawns and remodeled an old sec- 
tion at a small expense. This address 
is printed in full elsewhere in this 
issue. 
The next regular meeting of the 
association was held at the Quincy 
House, Boston, Monday, December 
9th, at 3 :30 p. m., a banquet following 
the meeting at $1.25 a plate. 
After the regular business was fin- 
ished, Superintendent Leonard Ross, 
of Mt. Hope Cemetery, Boston, 
read a paper on cemetery affairs; and 
Superintendent Fisher, of Walnut Hill 
Cemetery, Brookline, read a paper on 
the care of cemeteries, which was very 
interesting. It is hoped that each mem- 
ber will bring always one of his trus- 
tees that he may see what the associa- 
tion is doing for the good of the ceme- 
teries. Ladies are also invited to at- 
tend these meetings. 
There is one question that was 
brought up at this meeting and with 
which all the superintendents as far 
as possible should familiarize them- 
selves, that is: the decision of the 
Supreme Court on November 27th, at 
Pine Grove Cemetery, Milford, Mass., 
in regard to a tax being levied on 
the Perpetual Care Funds. A num- 
ber of members are interesting them- 
selves in trying to find out as far as 
possible whether this can be done or 
not. It was of great interest to all to 
attend this meeting and hear the dis- 
cussion. 
H. Wilson Ross, Newton, Mass., is 
President of the association and 
Horace A. Derry, Superintendent 
Glenwood Cemetery, Everett, Mass., 
is Secretary. 
RE-GRADING UNKEMPT SECTIONS OF THE CEMETERY 
An address before the New England Cemetery Association, by H. S. Adams. 
Two years ago we began on a sec- 
tion where part of the lots only are 
under perpetual care. Our first in- 
tention was to repair the gravel walks 
by removing the soft surface and re- 
placing with broken stones and gravel, 
at the same time resodding the edges 
and making the walks a uniform width 
of four feet. 
We soon became very much im- 
pressed with the improvement we 
were making, and decided to go back 
over the ground and re-grade every 
perpetual care lot which did not look 
well. Unless the sod was extra good 
we dug it up, manured and reseeded, 
at the same time eliminating all slight 
terraces and lowering and straighten- 
ing all monuments and headstones. 
One can well imagine that we felt we 
were very bold in this work, i. e., re- 
grading so many lots in one section, 
for we did not consult the lot owners. 
In fact, that seemed impossible owing 
to the difficulty of reaching them and 
the delay <hat any such attempt would 
cause. We also made an effort to re- 
move all poor shrubs and to place 
any good ones behind the monuments 
or rather in the open space where the 
lots backed up to each other. 
We even re-graded some lots which 
were merely under annual care on the 
principal that it was necessary to do 
these lots to get the results we de- 
sired, and the cemetery could well 
afford to go to this expense. 
Although the section was fairly level 
the banks between the lots were many 
and the elimination of these slopes re- 
quired the resetting of a large number 
of stones. 
This re-grading was undertaken 
rather late for the best seeding, but 
we decided to take our chances and 
seeded as fast as sufficient ground was 
ready to make it worth while. 
The results were at once seen and 
the section was greatly improved. 
Many of the lots had been posted, as 
was the custom in the earlier days. 
Most of the lots contained 300 square 
feet, and had not only four corner 
posts but one in the center of each 
side and two in the center front for 
an entrance. We broke off all the 
posts except those at the corners, 
which we afterwards cut down to 
grade. 
Although the lots were seeded at 
various times until it was too cold to 
do this work, we had remarkable suc- 
cess with the seed, and a light raking 
and seeding in the spring was all that 
was necessary. 
In digging over enough sods were 
saved to make a border for the paths, 
and we now find enough can usually 
be saved not only for this purpose 
but also to sod around all the monu- 
ments and headstones which insures a 
good growth of grass in these places 
and prevents the spattering of the 
bases during rain while the seed on 
the rest of the lot is coming up. 
We awaited the criticism of the lot 
owners, and you can well imagine our 
satisfaction when only one or two 
complained about the condition of the 
grass the following season, which you 
will remember was exceedingly dry, 
and one of these complaints was from 
an owner of an annual care lot who 
certainly had no reason to complain 
when we had re-graded his lot free 
of charge since he had only paid for 
cutting the grass. 
The result of this work was won- 
derful, and we only regretted that we 
had not re-graded every lot regardless 
of whether it was under perpetual 
care or neglected. In fact, this so 
impressed itself on us that in the fall 
of 1911 we re-graded every neglected 
lot in the section with still more satis- 
factory results. This year we have 
given care to every lot, making it one 
of the best sections in the grounds. 
In regard to this work we have 
come to the following conclusions, 
namely, that it is the only way to 
handle similar sections, and that the 
general appearance of the cemetery 
demands that the cemetery should go 
to the expense of re-grading all lots 
in similar sections regardless of 
whether they are under care or not. 
Just how much care we will give these 
uncared for lots in the future is a 
problem we are facing, but we cer- 
tainly cannot afford to let such lots 
become weed breeding sections in the 
cemetery. 
We are now planning to go over 
all similar sections as fast as time 
permits until the whole cemetery shall 
have been gone over. It might again 
