PARK AND CCMETCRY 
43 
sum. Many vases have been set in the private lots, 
- — some lots have two. 
Greenhouses are connected with the cemetery 
in which plants are grown for summer use, some 
10,000 being required annually. The cemetery al- 
so displays some fine monuments, notably those of 
the late Mark Skinner and E. S. Isham. A fine 
superintendent’s cottage. 
tomb has just been completed for Mrs. B. F. Car- 
ver and is built mainly of Hardwick granite. 
The entrance was the gift of Mark Skinner. On 
either side of the gateway, standing on large pe- 
destals are two figures representing “Death” and 
the “Resurrection;” these are of the finest Italian 
marble; back of these are two more pedestals sur- 
mounted by handsome vases in summer, while on 
the other two pedestals stand turned marble balls. 
The same gentleman also completed, just previous 
to his death, a very handsome stone cottage for the 
superintendent at a cost of $8,000, besides leaving 
to the Cemetery Association $10,000 to establish a 
fund. Dellwood has very few equals if any in the 
country for beauty and situation, and our city 
guests who are very numerous here through the 
summer greatly enjoy its natural and other beauti- 
ful attractions. What greater monument can any 
one have or desire than that of knowing he has by 
his means and influence, raised out of the old vil- 
lage grave yard, a living monument of beauty for 
the pleasure not only of the present generation, but 
of future generations? G. S. 
The Short Planting Season of the North. 
It is doubtful if the conditions of the Northern 
climate receive such consideration at the hands of 
Park Boards and Cemetery associations, as will en- 
able them to properly arrange the work of planting 
without hurry and confusion. 
The common practice is to respond to the call of 
Spring, and get a shout fever of energy for improve- 
ment about April, to be as suddenly postponed be- 
cause the trees are in full leaf — and “it is too late.” 
The trained foresight of the gardener, [I don’t 
mean a garden laborer, or any other person with a 
qualification] is essential to the successful manage- 
ment of large operations; they cannot successfully 
be delegated to a novice from a nursery, they can- 
not be tastefully and seasonably carried through by 
one person in a million. You will feel disposed to 
dispute the statement perhaps, but be sure you have 
looked the ground over well before you dispute at 
all. If you possess a critical taste you will perhaps 
be astonished to find how very few of the compo- 
sitions in the wide world are worthy the attention 
of a landscape painter. 
How far the mediocrity in landscape effect is 
due to hurry, how much is due to inherent want of 
taste, how much is due to a passion for bridges, 
tunnels, roads, and refectories, how much is due to 
sheer blindness, it is difficult to say — but this is cer- 
tain, it is neither due to want of material, nor to 
climate, for Nature has lavished the one and given 
unseen prescience to combat the other. The great 
majority of men simply neglect to apply either. It 
doesn’t pay them perhaps? then if they care for ef- 
fect in Park or Garden, either for themselves or in 
trust for others let them secure the services of some- 
one who has made it a business. The men you 
will have to select from will vary, and often enough 
the best men may be overlooked, and a mere plag- 
iarist selected. All the eminent landscape garden- 
ers of the world came to notice through the patron- 
age of some one man of more than ordinary taste. 
The late Duke of Devonshire was responsible for 
two of the most eminent practitioners of the past 
generation. 
The very first enquiry either one of these men 
would have made would have been as to the climat- 
ology of the region he operated in. It is very safe to 
say that neither Sir Joseph Paxton nor John Gibson 
ever ventured to use a plant before they had fully 
acquainted themselves with every climatological fact 
obtainable and connected with it. Oranges would 
have been impossibly hardy in northern Florida to 
the one, and Sweet Bays at Washington to the other. 
Not only the degrees of cold, but their duration, 
as well as the duration of all the features which con- 
stitute a climate are considered by a thorough 
practitioner. When these facts are known he can 
tell to a nicety very often if special arrangements 
are necessary to facilitate success in planting. 
It was my fate many years ago to reside in a 
climate where planting from the nursery could be 
done only during a single month of the year. The 
Forest Department was driven (or thought it was 
driven) to the use of flower pots. But by prepar- 
ing every single item of the work before hand, by 
having all tools and utensils ready, all the holes dug. 
