16 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department. 
More About Dandelions. 
Editor Asked and Answered: Referring 
to the problem of destroying dandelions 
mentioned in your last issue, these like 
many other pests are constantly spreading 
because they are very difficult to control, 
and it is useless to try without the most 
persistent co-operation in every infested 
locality. Some of the responses appearing 
in your current issue do not seem to me 
to be practical, although they may keep the 
dandelions somewhat in check to some ex- 
tent. Twenty years ago in the Berkshire 
Hills in Massachusetts, this was a very 
live problem and much effort was made 
to eradicate it. The English daisy rake, 
so called because so used to cut off the 
daisy flowers so common on the beautiful 
English lawns, is quite as useful also for 
the dandelion when properly used, and will 
not only cut off the flower heads, but also 
collects them, which is very important, for 
even a young dandelion flower head cut 
off will mature its seeds only to fly about 
at every waft of the wind. This rake was 
used with marked success, still the roots 
are left in the ground to grow, but in our 
case this work was followed by persistent- 
ly digging up the roots during every pos- 
sible spare moment. This method was not 
entirely satisfactory, because any small 
portion of the root left in the ground will 
grow again. After all kinds of ways and 
means that could be devised were fairly 
tried the following tw’o ways gave the 
best results. One was by the use of ordi- 
nary oil can and kerosene oil, injecting a 
few drops of the oil into the heart of the 
plant. It is however, a difficult job to get 
ordinary hands to do the job properly ; the 
oil must be placed on the center of the 
crown to get the best results. The other 
plan was in fertilizing the lawn, which 
was thickly studded with these unwelcome 
roots, with nitrate of soda, which instead 
of broadcasting a tablespoonful about was 
placed exactly on top of the crown. This 
with us was very effective in killing the 
dandelions and also in fertilizing the 
ground. By a combination of the above 
methods during spare time a badly in- 
fested lawn of five acres was cleared of 
this pest. Any work of this character 
should be followed up by destroying iso- 
lated roots, located in fence rows and 
elsewhere, for one root left to flower un- 
seen will soon fill the whole neighborhood 
with a new crop. W. M. O. Edwards. 
Pencoyd, Pa. 
Corner Posts and Markers. 
Editor Asked and Answered : In re- 
gard to corner posts and lot markers men- 
tioned in your February issue we make 
our own lot markers of concrete of the 
usual mixture of one, three and five. Then 
we use two inches of white silica sand, 
and white cement for top. The posts are 
6 by 6 by 24 inches long, and are set flush 
with the ground. We sell them to lot own- 
ers at cost with a three and one-half inch 
initial letter of the lot owner’s name cut 
in the top. The color when thoroughly 
dried out is a light buff, and they have 
given perfect satisfaction to every one. 
J. A. Wendorph, 
Supt., Roseland Park Cemetery. 
Detroit, IMich. 
Corner posts do serve a very useful 
purpose w'hen it is desired to establish lo- 
cations for graves; however, they should 
be limited in size and number and set 
flush with the surface of the ground. The 
post should be six inches by six inches and 
of such length that it is not distributed by 
frost. There should be but one post at a 
corner. J. C. Cline, 
Dayton. O. 
Grave Covers. 
Editor Asked and Answered : Will you 
kindly let me know if any of the cemetery 
associations in your section of the country 
use a grave cover in making interments. 
I mean by this a dummy cover in the 
shape of the grave when mounded up after 
a burial that the flowers are placed on, 
and after the assembly has retired the 
dummy is removed and the sexton and as- 
sistants then fill the grave and avoid all 
the unpleasantness of the filling being done 
before the mourners. We have this system 
in vogue here, and before urging its use by 
others we would like to know if you know 
of such a system. — J. S., Miss. 
If I mistake not, your correspondent 
means a grave mound shaped lid to place 
over the mouth of the grave, after the cas- 
ket has been lowered, and there to remain 
until the mourners have departed, the flow- 
ers are temporarily arranged on top of 
this lid. As soon as mourners have left 
the cemetery both lid and flowers are re- 
moved, and the grave is filled in the or- 
dinary way. If this is what is meant, I 
would say we do not use such a covering, 
and I do not know of any other cemetery 
that does. And considering modern meth- 
ods of interment and arrangements at the 
grave, I cannot see the utility of it. Do, 
please, urge all superintendents or other 
responsible officers of cemeteries to at- 
tend our annual cemetery conventions, 
when all the great cemeteries of the vicin- 
ity are visited and their methods of inter- 
ment and doing things in general are 
shown and explained to us free of cost, 
and we get gladly the first-hand opinions 
of the greatest minds and practitioners in 
the cemeterv business. He is a thick-head 
indeed, no matter how much he thought 
he knew before that, who cannot absorb 
something of advantage to his own prac- 
tice at home. William Falconer, 
Supt., Allegheny Cemetery. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
We do not use the grave cover you speak 
of nor do I personally know of anyone 
who does. So far as I can see, there is no 
decided advantage in using it, and it sim- 
ply makes one more thing to purchase, one 
more thing to cart around and one more 
thing to keep in repair. 
The Mt. Greenw'ood Cemetery Assn. 
A. R. Gross, 
Chicago, 111. Superintendent. 
We use lowering devices at all our fu- 
nerals, and as we never have the mourners 
stay for the filling of the grave, I can see 
no advantage in using a dummy cover, 
as it would increase the cost to some ex- 
tent, and therefore is something to avoid 
if possible. 
Ten years ago, when I first took charge 
of this cemetery, we occasionally had a 
party that would stay for the filling of the 
grave, but for the la.st five years I do not 
think we have had over three or four that 
have stayed for the filling. 
I think the superintendent should work 
to the end that the patrons of his cemetery 
would have so much confidence in him that 
they would not want to stay for the filling ; 
at any rate, that has been my aim. 
Leroy Christie, 
Supt., Ottumwa Cemetery. 
Ottumwa, la. 
Laying Out New Cemetery. 
Editor Asked and ' Answered : I own a 
fair-sized tract of land in a new and grow- 
ing Oklahoma city which is in need of a 
cemetery. I plan to have same developed 
thus if it can be done without large cost. 
Can you give me any figures, just fairly 
average, for surveying, platting into lots, 
fencing and putting into shape as a small 
cemetery? I confess at the outset I am 
very much in the dark as to how to go 
about such a thing. Can you advise how 
to start off the thing, costs, profits, etc.? 
I do not know where to obtain the infor- 
mation reliably. I wish particularly to 
know how to go about the proposition suc- 
cessfully, along most approved lines; also, 
quite important, too, is to know at the out- 
set the minimum expense entailed in put- 
ting on a successful project. — H. H. B., Ok. 
If you had been reading Park and Cem- 
etery in recent issues, you would have 
noted the frequency of just such inquiries 
as this, and our frequently expressed ad- 
vice that the laying out and management 
of a cemetery is a highly specialized pro- 
fessional work and cannot be handled by 
amateurs in the cemetery business. There 
is no advice anybody could give you that 
would be of any practical benefit to you 
except that of an expert, made after he has 
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