PARK AND CEMETERY. 
men should attempt to interfere with them; and it is 
on the presumption that the park officials can com- 
mand such intelligence that the care of the shade 
and ornamental trees are trustfully consigned to 
them. But the plaint of these officials in certain lo- 
calities has been that the city will not supply sufficient 
funds for the work, and we believe it is well founded. 
The shade and ornamental trees of a city should be 
regarded as among the most sacred obligations of 
the city fathers, and the last place to practice a 
questionable economy should be there. It takes 
years of patient endeavor to make up for the neg- 
lect of one, and in some cases it is never made up. 
All such facts in connection with tree life should be 
forcibly impressed on city governments, so that no 
mistaken economy may be brought to bear upon 
the public trees to their permanent injury. 
COUNTRY There is a broad field for improve- 
CEMETERIES ment in the small country cemetery is a 
statement which will remain unchallenged, and yet 
it must be admitted that up to a recent period, there 
has been little of an educational character dissemin- 
ated widely enough to attract attention and promote 
enthusiasm among those interested. The most ele- 
mentary principles of landscape gardening have 
been as a sealed book to the average citizen in the 
country place, and the utter lack of art instinct, 
which characterizes the great majority of our rural 
population, has shut their eyes to all possibilities 
of beauty in connection with their surroundings. 
It has been largely a case of awaiting education and 
opportunity. Knowing nothing better, and resting 
upon the idea that money spent on cemetery im- 
provements was money wasted, the rural burial 
ground has been left to take care of itself as a whole, 
its poor appearance, however, often accentuated 
by some particular lot better cared for than the 
others. Times are happily changing and the rapid 
introduction of nature study into the public school, 
the influences of Arbor Day and the characteris- 
tically educational nature of the literature now hnd- 
ing its way into the country town has done a great 
deal in the way of awakening sentiment in favor of 
improvement. The first great need of the country 
cemetery is organization of citizens for the purpose 
of improvement, the next is the adoption of a pre- 
arranged method of improvement, and finally a de- 
termined effort to improve. The advantages ac- 
cruing from these successive steps are too self evi- 
dent to need explanation. Park and Cemetery 
has discussed details in its columns ofttimes, and 
it is always ready to afford what information lays 
in its power to help this cause. The clearing out 
of weeds and objectionable accumulations of vege- 
table debris, the mending of roads and paths, the 
mowing of grass where it is worth saving, and the 
sowing of it to create lawn surface, are among the 
first steps to rennovate the country burial ground. 
Then might follow the planting of shade and me- 
morial trees, the filling in of exposed and vacant 
places with appropriate shrubs, and the planting of 
vines and trailers to embellish the boundary fences. 
With the improvements carried so far, it might be 
a good time to formulate and adopt rules looking to 
the preservation of what had been done, as well as 
to the continued care of the grounds by the lot own- 
ers and all interested. This would make a good be- 
ginning and carried thus far, what would naturally 
follow would be comparatively easy of accomplish- 
ment, and the whole community would have un- 
doubtedly become personally interested in the re- 
sults. To revolutionize the conditions of the coun- 
try cemetery, it is the first step that counts. Pro- 
gress thereafter in the natural order of things seems 
bound to follow. 
TREE 
PLANTING 
ASSOCIATIONS 
x-Y wora rn connection witn the work 
of “tree planting associations” 
may be suggestive. Where such have 
been organized and conducted with intelligence, 
energy and spirit, great results have been accom- 
plished, notably in Brooklyn and its neighbor- 
hood, where great changes in the condition, num- 
ber and care of the trees have been brought about. 
By persevering effort the city fathers have been in- 
duced to pass ordinances looking to the protection 
of street trees against vandalism and carelessness 
generally, making it a misdemeanor subject to fine. 
But the most far reaching influence of such organi- 
zations is the educational one, whereby the abut- 
ting property owners are led to take a personal and 
pecuniary interest in their trees, and this brings 
about a policy of care which is constant in its ap- 
plication, and redounds to the welfare of the trees 
themselves and to the increasing beauty of the 
avenues and thoroughfares they grace. As a word 
of encouragement it may be said, that there is no 
more powerful agency in provoking enthusiasm in 
man than nature herself contributes. Once get a 
community interested in trees, their utility and 
beauty, and energetic missionaries find little diffi- 
culty in formulating and prosecuting plans for im- 
provement. A striking example of this is Kansas 
City, Mo. About a yearago a Tree Planters Society 
was formed, since which time 7,000 trees have been 
planted, 5,000 more are provided for and in addi- 
tion to these efforts of the society, the park com- 
missioners have let contracts for 6,000 trees. This 
is one year’s work. And the children of the public 
schools are credited with considerable honor in the 
result. 
