210 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
PARK NOTES CONTINUED. 
Wirth, Hartford; Thomas W. Cook, New Bedford; Byron 
Worthen, Manchester, N. H. ; Gustave X. Amrhyn, New 
Haven; J. W. Thompson, Watertown, N. Y. ; William S. 
Manning, Newark, N. J.; Joseph D. Fitts, Providence, R. 
I.; John A. Pettigrew, James B. Shea, William J. Stewart 
and J. W. Duncan, of Boston. John H. Hemingway, of 
Worcester, who is treasurer of the Association, was unfor- 
tunately confined to his home with an attack of “la grippe.” 
He was missed at the gathering, as it is the first meeting 
from which he has been absent in the existence of the or- 
ganization. The following day was spent in viewing Bos- 
ton's parks, playgrounds and winter sports under the guid- 
ance of Superintendent Pettigrew. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
— - 
Resistance of Palms Against Fire. 
The agricultural pavilion of Stockton burned down last 
September. The building was a very large, three-story, 
wooden structure, having the form of a cross, with wings 
about 260 feet long from north to south and east to west. 
The angles were planted wfith groups of palms and some 
exogenous trees and shrubs, including the following : Cali- 
fornia fan palm Washingtonia filifera, from 25 to 30 feet 
high, 8 feet 8 inches in circumference, 5 feet from the 
ground; Japanese fan palm, Trachycarpus excelsus, better 
known as Chamaerops excelsa, 10 to 12 feet high, 18 inches 
in circumference ; Canary Island date palm, Phoenix 
Canariensis, stem 6 feet high, 8 feet in circumference ; and 
Chamaerops humilis, 4 feet high, 2 feet 6 inches in circum- 
ference. All the palms were very close to the building, the 
ends of the leaves of the date palms touching the wood. The 
wind at the time of the fire was strong and blew from 
the northwest. All the exogenous plants burned to the 
ground except a few Euonymus in the extreme northwest 
corner. All of the California fanpalms have started to grow 
again, having about 10 or 12 leaves again, although only 
about one-half the normal size. Two date palms on the west 
side have grown again. The Japanese fanpalms on the 
north, northeast, northwest, west and southwest have started 
to grow and have already a few stunted leaves. All plants 
on the southeast perished except the California fan palm. 
This seems to show that many species of palms with a thick 
trunk would likely prove safe against the destruction of 
forest fires. The heat of this fire was so great that a hose 
cart driver and his horse were burned to death in attempt- 
ing to cross the street south of the fire. 
Stockton, Cal. W. Vortriede. 
* * * 
Work of a Texas Improvement Society. 
Editor Park and Cemetery: — Your valuable paper “Park 
and Cemetery” for January is before me, and I see in the 
department of Improvement Associations so much to inter- 
est civic workers that I want to ask a little space to tell 
what our “Civic Improvement Society” has done this past 
year. W'e are only two years old, and are a federated club. 
We have planted flowers in our court house yard, planted 
trees for nearly a mile along one of our new and prettiest 
streets, furnished a “rest room” in the public school, white- 
washed fences and outhouses, on school grounds, and or- 
ganized the school children into Civic League workers. 
Clarksville, Tex. Mrs. J. W. O’Neill. 
The Brockton Union Cemetery Association, Brockton, 
Mass., has appointed a committee of 50 to raise a fund for 
the perpetual care of the cemetery, and $16,000 has already 
been subscribed. 
* 1 ' ^ 
John G. Schaeffer has secured judgment in the courts of 
Kansas against the Rev. B. Krenke, pastor of the Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran St. Paul’s Church in Sedgwick County, Kas., 
who refused permission to bury Schaeffer’s daughter in the 
church cemetery beside her mother on a lot owned by the 
complainant. 
* * * 
The city cemeteries of Pawtucket, R. I., are now reported 
to be on a paying basis. The receipts from Mineral Spring 
and Oak Grove last year were' $6,438.90 and expenditures 
were $5,988.84. For years these cemeteries were a burden 
on the city treasurer, and Superintendent Charles F. Wins- 
low is credited with putting them on a self-supporting 
basis. 
, * * * 
The Winchester Ministerial Association, of Winchester, 
Va., has entered a protest against expensive and elaborate 
funerals, and decided that all obsequies at which the mem- 
bers are asked to officiate shall be conducted in the briefest 
and simplest manner. Resolutions were adopted, dispensing 
with all funeral sermons and orations. 
* * * 
Fairview Cemetery Society, of Clarksville, Texas, have 
made a number of improvements in the cemetery in that 
town. They have laid tiling at front entrance instead of a 
wooden bridge, planted one hundred evergreens on the drive- 
ways, besides planting more forest trees to supply the place 
of those lost. They have arranged to set aside the pro- 
ceeds from sale of lots for five years as a perpetual care 
fund with the intention of investing the money so that the 
interest will care for the cemetery. Mrs. J. W. O’Neill is 
President of the Society. 
* * * 
The report of Secretary P. H. Lash, of the Aulenbach 
Cemetery Company, of Reading, Pa., showed that the re- 
ceipts during the past year were over $4,000 and the ex- 
penses $3,600, leaving $441 in the treasury. The greatest 
expense during the year was for curbing along the ceme- 
tery property. This cost between $600 and $700. Next to 
this the most important improvement was the laying of water 
pipe sufficient to reach the highest part of the grounds. 
The entire revenue thus far has been devoted to beautify- 
ing the cemetery and' to paying off the debt, which still 
amounts to about $6,000. 
* * * 
The commissioners of Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn, Mass., 
in their 15th annual report, give the total receipts for the 
year, including the appropriation of $10,000, and a City Coun- 
cil loan of $948.67, as $29,251.55; the total expenditures, $29,- 
2 5 1 -55- The perpetual care fund amounts to $140,473, and 17 
old lots were added to this list last year. The total increase 
in the fund in 1903 was $8,515. The burials were 636 for 
the year, making a total of 19,868. Receipts and appropria- 
tions are reported as insufficient to maintain the cemetery. 
* * * 
The residence of John Meisch, superintendent of Holy 
Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, N. Y., was destroyed by 
