PARK AND CEMETERY. 
177 
Wr 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
Conducted by 
1^ Frances Copley Seavey. 
Leave the World a pleasanter place than you found it. 
THE LOCAL CEMETERY. 
This phase of Improvement Club work has al- 
ready been touched on, but, as late fall is the best 
time for such work to be done, a discussion of its 
details has been deferred till the present. 
In all parts of the country, except the extreme 
south, the natural season of rest for vegetable life 
arrives by November and plants are then dormant 
and in the best condition to be transferred to new 
homes. Evergreens, both broad leaved and needle 
varieties, are a marked exception to this rule for it 
is safer to transplant them in the spring. Magnolias, 
also, must be moved in the spring. 
Every member of any given community is per- 
sonally interested in the local cemetery, which fact 
proves both an advantage and a disadvantage to 
the work and to the workers who have it in charge. 
The seeming paradox is explained by saying that 
while almost every one is willing to share in the 
work, each one will also be pretty sure to have 
definite ideas as to what should be done — most of 
them wrong ideas. Perhaps in no other direction 
is custom, prejudice and pre-conceived notions, so 
numerous or so strong as those that cluster around 
the grave. 
It should be a labor of love to the intelligent 
and progresive men and women who are at the head 
of Improvement Associations first: to ascertain 
what the civilized world considers best in this con- 
nection, and second: to patiently give their reasons 
to all who combat the work of putting those ideas 
to a practical test. 
What is known as the Lawn plan, sometimes 
called the Rural Cemetery plan, is acknowledged 
the world over to be the ideal plan for the disposal 
and the care of the dead. It originated in the 
United States and its best examples are found here. 
This style is familiar to many of our readers — to 
all old subscribers, for its tenets have been incul- 
cated through these pages by numerous and diverse 
methods — but, for the benefit of new subscribers 
and of any Improvement Clubs that may have hon- 
ored us by being in any degree guided by our sug- 
gestions, an outline may not be undesirable. 
The Lawn plan may, in a large way, be de- 
scribed as a park in which interments are made. It 
is the outgrowth of the general and natural desire 
to see one’s friends laid to rest in pleasant places. 
A cemetery designed in accordance with this 
idea is a piece of ground in which all good natural 
features, whether of vegetation, ground surface, 
waterways, etc., are preserved and improved; where 
a few driveways on simple lines are laid out to fit 
the shape, surface and native growths; these drive- 
ways are properly constructed and a drainage sys- 
tem is established; the space is divided into sec- 
tions, and these into lots; ground not already in 
suitable condition for burial purposes, is made so 
by filling, the removal of stones, trees, etc., care be- 
ing taken to preserve just the right trees; a certain 
proportion of space is reserved for ornamental 
planting; rules are made limiting the planting on 
lots to what the designer considers appropriate, and 
visible boundaries to lots, whether copings, hedges, 
or fences are forbidden — because the intention is to 
make the place look well as a whole, the whole be- 
ing greater than its parts; to this end, lots are 
treated in relation to the general effect rather than 
individually. Mounds are not park-like and de- 
tract from the general effect, so they are omitted, 
and for the same reason footstones are barred, the 
height of markers at the heads of graves limited, 
and no monuments allowed except those made from 
designs that have been submitted and passed on by 
the Superintendent or Board of Directors (who 
must be men of taste and judgment); and all stone 
work must be done according to certain specifica- 
tions to the end of securing work that will be per- 
manent. 
Conditions differ, and only a competent Land- 
scape Gardener who is acquainted with this class of 
work can decide the numerous details in opening a 
new cemetery, but grounds that are already in use 
may be greatly improved by a careful study of 
those that are correct in design; by slowly undo- 
ing poor work, and by gradually substituting and 
introducing better features. 
Fences, copings, hedges or other visible bound- 
aries between lots, and mounds over graves, detract 
from the appearance of the grounds as a whole, 
therefore they should all be removed. There should 
be no visible boundary between lots, though some- 
times one or more sides of a section is visibly 
bounded by a drive way. Walks between lots 
should be on the same level as the lots themselves, 
and both should be mantled by a close covering of 
green sward, and there should be broad openings 
innocent of any plant save grass over which spaces 
the lengthening shadows of neighboring trees should 
sweep like hands across a dial; and in appropri- 
ate locations handsome hardy shrubs may be massed. 
To secure such effects, it is necessary to restrict 
the use of plants to certain locations, as, for in- 
stance, to parts of irregularly shaped sections, to 
