PARK AND CEMETERY. 
A Monthly Journal of Landscape Gardening and Kindred Arts. ^ 
VOL. IX. Chicago, April, 1899. NO. 2. 
CONTENTS. 
EDITORIAL — City Foresters a Necessity — The Policy of 
Property Holders in Park Matters — City Engineers and 
Cemetery Practice — Arbor Day— Park Laborers Must 
be Intelligent — Cremation 27, 28 
*A Few Uncommon Vines 29 
* Drainage 30 
Street Trees 32 
* Hardy Palms 33 
*Hubbard Park, Meriden, Conn 34 
*Home Grounds 36 
*Land for Cemetery Purposes 37 
*The Maisonneuve Monument, Montreal 39 
Christobal Colon Cemetery, Havana, Cuba 40 
^Design for a Memorial Receiving Vault 41 
Improvement Associations 42 
*Garden Plants — Their Geography, XL, 44 
*The Magnolia Lotus 45 
*Floral Steps — From Swamp to Water Garden 46 
Park Notes 47 
Cemetery Notes 48 
Selected Notes and Extracts 49 
Reviews of Books, Reports, etc 50 
* Illustrated. 
OW that the indiscriminate tree butcher is 
abroad in the land, under the guise of the 
trimmer and pruner, the suggestion to em- 
ploy a city forester is of great import and such an 
officer is one of the most needed additions to official 
life. The public is being awakened so thoroughly 
to the position the tree occupies in our city civiliza- 
tion, the many useful purposes it serves, the won- 
drous addition to urban scenery it affords, and the 
delightful associations it recalls, that interest in our 
trees is becoming a factor of public intelligence, 
and demands are being made upon the city fathers 
in many localities to institute active steps to ensure 
proper treatment of the trees. It is, perhaps, un- 
necessary to say that the care of trees requires 
trained heads and hands, and the difference in the 
care bestowed by the intelligent or ignorant care- 
taker is unfortunately everywhere manifest. Town 
foresters have been appointed in a number of cities, 
and such an officer is a crying need in the great 
majority of American cities. 
T here is a short sighted policy often exhibited 
by property holders in demanding prohibitory 
prices for property required for park pur- 
poses. It is a policy which not only retards park 
development itself, but it tends to keep back im- 
provements in other directions, and creates a lack of 
confidence in the community. Such a condition 
has come to notice in Louisville, Ky., where the 
project to improve Central Park, for which the Du 
Pont heirs once asked $250,000, is receiving a 
serious setback because tbe same heirs now ask 
a larger sum for the property. Wherever a piece of 
property is desirable for park purposes and is in 
demand for that purpose, the owners would be 
helping themselves first and the community after- 
wards, by asking reasonable compensation. Were 
they sufficiently public spirited to think of the 
community first and themselves second, they will 
surely have their reward. 
I N many of our smaller cities, where the ceme- 
teries are conducted by the municipal author- 
ities, their care naturally falls under the 
jurisdiction of the City Engineer, where such an 
official has general supervision of all public works. 
Many city reports coming to hand, show this to be 
the case, and this at least suggests that the work 
will be conducted with intelligence. But it is also 
to be observed that, to the lack of interest which 
has generally characterized the behavior of the 
people toward their cemeteries, at least up to within 
a very few years, and which is even very largely 
the case to-day, the old ideas still prevail, being 
subject to the routine of official procedure. The 
cemetery is rapidly becoming an important feature 
of our progressive civilization; instead of being the 
last thing to be thought of, it is gaining a position 
in public esteem next only to the public parks. 
The beautiful landscape features in our important 
cemeteries are permanent examples of such work, 
and the fact that such development is actually 
demanded, compels the suggestion to those city 
engineers having charge of cemeteries, that they 
should make a study of the best cemetery condi- 
,, tions of to-day, and guide their methods accord- 
ingly. Should they labor under the impression 
that there is little to be learned in cemetery practice, 
let them secure permission to attend the next con- 
vention of the Association of American Cemetery 
Superintendents, to be held in New Hayen, Conn., 
in the fall, where they will be surely disillusioned, 
and will return to their charge fully imbued with 
the importance of the work and the absolute neces- 
sity of keeping abreast of the times in cemetery 
improvement. Under any circumstances their atten- 
dance at the convention will be a paying investment. 
