PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
VoL XII CHICAGO, JANUARY, 1903. No, 11 
Entered at the PostofEce at Chicag'o as Second Class Matter. 
CONTENTS. 
Editorial — Essex County Park System — Farm Journals 
and Improvement — Stereopticon Lectures — Begin with 
the Children — An Exhortation — Photography at St. 
Louis 452, 453 
*Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, N. Y 454 
Simplicity in Monumental Design 457 
Iowa Park and Forestry Association 458 
*An Avenue of Salisburias 459 
A Paris Cemetery for Dogs 460 
*Park Development in Essex County, N. J 461 
^Improvement Associations 465 
*Chapel and Receiving Vault, Buffalo, N. Y 467 
Evolution in Improvement of Towns and Cities 468 
*Garden Plants — Their Geography LXXXV 469 
Seasonable Suggestions 471 
Three New Garden Books 472 
*Park Notes 473 
Cemetery Notes 474 
Reviews of Books, Reports, Etc 475 
*lllustmted. 
ESSEX COUNTY The illustrated article on the Essex 
PARK SYSTEM County, N. J., parks, given in this 
issue, prompts another reference to this well consid- 
ered project for a county park system. The methods 
adopted by the men who originated the scheme and 
controlled it have been highly commendable, and it 
stands out prominently as illustrating what can be 
done for the people in the direction of providing parks, 
when political influence is successfully debarred from 
interference, and the work is in the hands of cultured 
and efficient business men. While Essex county pos- 
sesses more than the average share of wealthy citizen- 
ship, and the financing of such a project therefore be- 
comes, comparatively, a less complex matter, the his- 
tory and establishment of its park system is an object 
lesson for all communities, and the various details in- 
volved in the work from first to last afford profitable 
study for all interested in the subject of promoting, 
designing and establishing public parks. In a large 
measure, parks, which are now considered of vital im- 
portance to a community, have been a neglected ques- 
tion, and in this day of forceful effort to regain lost 
ground, it is imperative that the best information 
should be readily at hand, so that the accumulated ex- 
perience of other communities may be drawn upon 
to solve the problems constantly presenting themselves. 
FARM JOURNALS On the first page of the January 
AND IMPROVMENT Farm Journal the following para- 
graph appears : “The man in the country who im- 
proves his home surroundings not only benefits himself 
but the entire community in which he dwells. Good 
examples are catching, like the measles, and when such 
a man forces the contrast between the looks of a place 
well cared for and his neighbor’s uncared for, it be- 
comes a great and effective object lesson. Try it and 
see.” The cause of the improvement of home sur- 
roundings is to be congratulated that the agricultural 
press takes such a practical view of this great question; 
and lends its powerful voice to promoting its objects. 
It is mainly through this class of journalism that the 
farming communities can be reached, and it should be 
a constant effort of the improvement associations to 
keep the farm journals posted on the progress of the 
movement, and to supply them with interesting and in- 
structive practical matter for their columns. It should 
be an easy matter to impress upon the farmer the ad- 
visability of improving his home and its surroundings. 
The very appearance of the house and grounds of any 
farm affects the value of the farm in a far greater 
degree than is realized, and the towns or villages which 
nestle in the midst of the agricultural districts would 
also be materially benefited by the interest which 
would be aroused from the surrounding beauty spots 
which improved farm houses would provide. There is 
such an uplifting tendency in beautiful environment 
that, given a hearty effort to impart and encourage the 
educational influences necessary to bring about reform, 
we shall soon witness the effects. 
STEREOPTICON Foremost among the many means of 
LECTURES disseminating practical knowledge 
in horticultural and improvement work is the stereopti- 
con lecture. It is impressive and lasting in its educa- 
tional effect and when conducted by a lecturer of abil- 
ity and resources, its use as a factor in the campaign 
of public beauty can scarcely be overestimated, and it 
is being recognized as such in the centers of activity in 
this line of work. As an incentive to similar effort 
elsewhere, the proposition of the Massachusetts so- 
ciety for promoting agriculture is worthy of trial by 
similar associations ; indeed the application of such 
a method of educating the people is of universal adapt- 
ability. Massachusetts has been for many years sorely 
troubled by a sort of plague of leaf-eating insects, and 
