PARK AND CEMETERY. 
63 
THE TREATMENT OF THE ROADSIDE. 
Mrs. F. II. Tucker, of Newton, Mass., recently 
delivered a lecture before the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society on Roadside Treatment. The fol- 
lowing abstract is from The New England Farmer : 
She said that the most casual observer driving 
through country roads can hardly fail to be struck 
with what seems to be opposite tendencies in the 
treatment of roadsides. One is to make a clean 
sweep of everything that grows. All growth, 
whether a blade of glass, a daisy, a fern, raspberry, 
alder, or seedling oak or maple — everything is 
periodically clipped as close as scythe can cut it. 
The other is the let-alone tendency. On roads 
where this prevails there is no more attempt at tree 
planting than in the other case, but neither is there 
care or effort of any kind, and all sorts of growth 
flourish widely luxuriant, so luxuriant indeed as 
often to interfere rather seriously with the traveler’s 
hat or carriage top. 
New England love for order and tidiness led 
many old-time farmers to look upon roadside 
“bushes and weeds’’ as untidy, and to “clean up” 
the sides of the road just as his wife swept her floors 
and arranged the chairs in straight rows against 
the walls, and the conservatism just mentioned has 
kept him and his descendants doing the same thing 
ever since. A farmer who did not keep his road- 
side “clean’’ was looked at askance as “shiftless’’ 
and more or less unthrifty, wTatevc-r redeeming 
traits he might display. 
The golden mean lies between these extremes, 
to be settled by systematic treatment of roadsides 
according to local conditions. All roadside growth 
is beautiful in its place, and that place can be 
found by the scientific artist. These objections 
can be met by judicious arrangement and manage- 
ment. 
Fourth, who shall undertake this work ? Mrs. 
Tucker said; Our state highway commission is per- 
haps the best equipped for investigation and exper- 
iment along these lines, while the Massachusetts 
Forestry Association and the Horticultural Society 
could find many ways to assist and advise in making 
our country roads beautiful without being un- 
practical. No official agency can be of more value 
in the systematic study of local conditions as a 
means toward a beautiful and practical treatment 
than the tree warden or road commissioner of each 
town, if he is fitted for his office. 
THE CREMATION QUESTION. 
The following discussion of the cremation ques- 
tion was recently given in the Medical Record of 
New York City: A large part of the London let- 
ter in the New York Herald of Sunday, February 
18th, w'as devoted to a consideration of the advisa- 
bility of enforcing cremation in the interests of pub- 
lic health. It appears that the county council of 
that overgrown and ever-spreading city, London, is 
deeply concerned at the danger by which its inhabi- 
tants are threatened, due to the present system of 
burying the dead. That the alarm felt and ex- 
pressed is not altogether groundless, must be al- 
lowed. Granted that contagion can be spread by 
such means — and under certain conditions the pos- 
sibility of this occurrence has been on several occa- 
sions undeniably proved — then London, with its 
numerous cemeteries and graveyards, must neces- 
sarily be more or less exposed to the risk of infec- 
tion. True it is that most of its large burying- 
grounds are situated at a distance from the city but 
owing to its marvellous expansion, there are many 
which, once in the country, are now surrounded by 
houses. However, putting aside sanitary reasons, 
in themselves a strong enough cause for an altera- 
tion, there is another point to be considered. It has 
been estimated that every year about tw'enty-four 
acres of land are required for the disposal of the 
dead of London, and the argument is brought for- 
ward that if cremation should be adopted this waste 
of land would be avoided. But as it is with Lon- 
don, so it is with all large centres of population, 
though to a lesser extent. Dr. Louis Windmuller, 
writing on the subject in the North American Re- 
view of August last says: ‘In the early part of this 
century graves were in evidence in New York to 
such an extent, that a splenetic Englishman who 
came to visit our shores speedily returned when he 
found every street lined with headstones.” At one 
time New York was full of graveyards, and this 
was the case until between 1846 and 1852, when to 
all intents and purposes burial within the city limits 
was prohibited. This is certainly a change for the 
better; still, with the present tendency of people to 
flock to the towns, the question of disposing of the 
dead so as to preclude any fear of spreading conta- 
gion and on general sanitary grounds is a serious 
one. Perhaps the strongest objection to cremation 
will be found in religious sentiment, but, after all, 
it is but a sentiment. Looked at through medical 
spectacles, it would almost appear as if cremation 
had almost everything to be urged in its favor, and 
little or nothing against it. With regard to the 
difficulty of detecting poison in ashes, this can 
scarcely be regarded as a sufficiently serious objec- 
tion to counterbalance the manifold advantages of 
the method. The fear of being buried alive, too, 
which is ever present with some people, would if 
cremation should be brought into use, be wholly 
done away with. 
