PARK AND CC/ACTCR't’ 
41 
ed. All admit that the future care of a burial 
ground should be provided for, and not left to pos- 
terity. One correspondent writes: “I would like 
to bring my cemetery under the perpetual care sys- 
tem, but there are so many old lot owners who 
bought cheaply and have either looked after the 
lots themselves or paid a small sum each year for 
having their lot cared for.” When this class of lot 
owners is approached and told the amount required 
to be funded and produce a sum sufficient to keep 
their ground in order, they exclaim, “why that is 
more than I gave for my lot,” and they prefer jog- 
ging along in the old fashion. So how to make the 
change in this class of burial ground is a perplexing 
question. What is adaptable to one locality will 
probably not be suitable to another. Take for in- 
stance a cemetery in a large city, where the pur- 
chasing price of lots is from one to two dollars or 
more per square foot, and when the annual sales 
are heavy, ten or fifteen per cent taken from each 
sale will soon realize a large amount, the interest 
of which alone will rapidly help to swell the sum to- 
tal. The perpetual care in such places is not in 
much doubt, no matter if nothing was set aside out 
of the purchase of the older lots. The fund will in 
a few years be large enough to care for the whole 
of the grounds. It is in the cemeteries in smaller 
communities that the problem is more difficult of 
solution. In several places appeals have been made 
to the lot owners, asking them to contribute to the 
future care fund and the response has been gratify- 
ing. The money thus obtained formed quite a nice 
“nest egg” with which to start the fund; but the num- 
ber of owners willing and able to give is propor- 
tionately small. Frequently the original purchas- 
ers are among the departed or those who have mov- 
ed away, and the heirs care little about the appear- 
ance of the family lot. These lots will always be a 
burden on the endowment. The general appear- 
ance of the grounds demand that such lots shall be 
attended to. One uncared for lot in the midst of 
those well cared for would militate against the ap- 
pearance of the whole. 
Let us take a burial ground where the prices 
range from 25 cts. to 50 cts. per foot and where 
the annual sales are small. Fifteen or twenty per 
cent deducted from such sales will not amount 
to much. The writer has in mind one such place, 
where after years of strict economy the trustees 
have accumulated seven thousand dollars, with the 
larger portion of the ground disposed of. The in- 
terest from the care fund is quite inadequate for the 
future maintenance of their grounds; they have there- 
fore purchased more land on purpose to enlarge 
their cemetery and are anxious to start off upon a 
sufficiently good basis, to enable them to so increase 
their care fund that in the future the whole place 
will be kept in decent order. In this instance the 
price of lots should be raised so that the amount 
deducted for the care fund will be adequate. They 
have been selling the land too cheaply in the past. 
It should be pointed out to intending purchasers 
that in taking a burial lot, they are not buying 
acreage property, but a piece of ground for a last 
resting place, the future care of which is as essen- 
tial as the care of the dwellings of the living, yea, 
even more so, for the living will take care of them- 
selves. But the dead are too soon forgotten, and 
if the future care of their resting place is not paid 
for in advance, the prospect is by no means bright 
for assurance of care in the future. 
In some cemeteries the care fund is based upon 
the actual cost per foot for maintenance of each lot 
and frequently amounts to about one-fourth of the 
original purchase. In others an estimate is made 
of the amount which will be required to cut the 
grass and keep the roads in good order after there 
are no more for sale, putting away each year a cer- 
tain amount of the profits, till the required end can 
be attained. In new cemeteries this is an excellent 
plan, and in one recently started the owners have 
decided not to declare any dividends till the endow- 
ment fund reaches the estimated point. They then 
can either allow the interest to accumulate or use 
it to improve the appearance of the grounds. In 
looking over the reports of the leading cemeteries, 
the price estimated as requistite for perpetual care 
varies considerably, and ranges all the way from 
75 cents for small lots down to 20 cents per square 
foot for larger ones. A safe basis for small ceme- 
teries would be to set aside an amount the interest 
from which would annually produce a sum equiva- 
lent to two cents per foot for small and a cent and 
a half for large lots. 
Chicago. Bellett Lazvson. 
At the recent meeting of the proprietors of the 
Lowell, Mass. , Cemetery, the following rule was 
transferred to the By-Laws, which has the effect of 
giving to the lot owners themselves jurisdiction ov- 
er its future: 
“The corporation may hold in perpetual trust 
conveyances of the lots in the cemetery from lot- 
owners, subject to such conditions as may be there- 
in expressed, not inconsistent with the conveyan- 
ces to said lot-owners and statutes relating 
thereto. ” 
The purpose of the by-law is to enable a lot- 
owner to prevent the possibility of any degenerate 
successor alienating the family burial lot, and 
thus avoid a complication of quite frequent oc- 
currence. 
