PA RK AND C EM ETER Y. 
Ill 
"The covenant provided for the profit 
that it was agreed the grantor should have, 
but what that profit should be the parties 
themselves never fixed at any particular 
sum ; hence, inasmuch as such sum cannot 
be ascertained from the covenant itself, it 
must be held by a court of equity to be a 
reasonable sum in view of the services of 
the grantor and their value to the grantee, 
less any credits to which the grantee is -en- 
titled. Such a sum, when ascertained, 
should be treated as unpaid purchase price 
for the land until extinguished by payment 
in gross or by a percentage from the price 
of lots as provided in the agreement that 
was invalid solely because the amount so 
to be paid was unliquidated." 
Validity of Cemetery Regulations. 
In a suit lately passed upon by the iMas- 
sachusetts Judicial Court relating to the 
right of burial in a lot, it appeared that 
plaintiff obtained from defendant a cer- 
tificate whereby the right was granted to 
plaintiff and the Roman Catholic members 
of his family to bury in a certain lot. The 
certificate contained other provisions re- 
lating to occupancy of the lot, the manner 
in which interments should be made, etc. 
Another clause read : "It is to be ex- 
pressly understood that this certificate is 
not a conveyance of real estate, nor does it 
confer any right to sell or transfer the lot 
herein mentioned.’’ C'nder these circum- 
stances, the Supreme Judicial Court de- 
cided : 
"The right which the plaintiff received 
under this certificate was merely a right of 
burial. It was merely a license or privi- 
lege of burial, and the terms upon which 
it could be exercised were subject to such 
reasonable rules and regulations as the de- 
fendant should from time to time impose. 
♦ * * The provision in the certificate 
that it is granted subject to the regula- 
tirns therein contained and ‘such others as 
may be from time to time prescribed in 
relation to burials in said cemetery’ au- 
thorized the imposition of regulations in 
addition to those expressly stated in the 
certificate, and such regulations might prop- 
erly be in writing or orally communicated 
when the certificate was issued, and the 
consideration was paifl therefor. The rule 
that oral evidence is not admissible to 
alter, vary or control a contract in writing 
is not applicable to such an instrument, 
the express language of which authorized 
alterations and variations from time to 
time." f fireen vs. Danahy, 111 Northeast- 
ern Reporter, 675. ) 
Burial Limits in Connecticut. 
Under a law aflopted at the last session 
of the Connecticut General .-Vssembly it has 
been enacted that no person shall bury the 
body of a deceased |)erson within ,550 feet 
from any dwelling house, unle'^s a public 
hi,.dnvay intervenes. By express exception, 
the law does not affect burials in ceme- 
teries which were in existence when the 
law was passed, nor in plots annexed to 
such cemeteries with the written approval 
of the secretary of the state board of 
health. (Connecticut Public Acts, 1915, 
chapter 158.) 
Offenses Against Cemeteries in Georgia. 
A statute in force in Georgia reads as 
follows; “Any person who shall willfully 
or wantonly injure or destroy any in- 
closure around or within any public or 
private burying ground, or any monument, 
tombstone or other fixture therein, shall be 
guilty of a misdemeanor.” 
Applying this statute in a case where a 
conviction of willfully injuring a burying 
ground was affirmed, the Georgia Court of 
Appeals held the other day, in the case of 
State vs. Drew, 88 Southeastern Reporter, 
716, that to authorize a conviction under 
the law it is not necessary to show strict 
legal title to the inclosure alleged to be 
private burying ground of a certain person 
or family. The court holds that a convic- 
tion was sustainable on this point by evi- 
dence that the inclosure injured by the de- 
fendant had been used as a private burying 
ground by a certain family for many years. 
ASKED AND ANSWERED 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department 
Cemetery Boundary Planting. 
Editor asked and answered : We are fig- 
uring on some suitable fence for a new 
cemetery and would like a suggestion from 
you regarding same. For an outside fence 
what is your opinion of the results ob- 
tained by using Berberis Thunhergi as a 
hedge, planted about 12 inches apart? Until 
the shrubbery grows to make a hedge, I 
was thinking of using two or three wires 
above by fastening same to concrete posts, 
planting at proper distances apart on a line 
with the shrubbery. I have noticed a very 
pretty effect brought out by using this spe- 
cial shrubbery for hedge. — J. H., O. 
I am very glad to write you about this, 
as there is a vast amount of ignorance and 
in some cases even business dishonesty with 
reference to planting hedges. I have seen 
a fully developed Berberis 'I hunbergi over 
12 feet in diameter and 6 feet high. Speci- 
mens like this may be seen in the Boston 
park system. Why nurseries advise clients 
to plant them 12 inches apart and in dou- 
ble rows at that bears out what I said 
above. Far more Barberries sold and 
planted could be saved if planted the right 
distance apart. Of course, the clients are 
sometimes to blame for wanting "quick re- 
sults.” Plants too close together kill the 
wide limbs of each other, the weaker plant 
finally succumljing, leaving a hole in the 
hedge which cannot be filled up satisfac- 
torily. Berberis Thunbergi ought never to 
be planted closer than two feet apart and 
preferably two and one-half feet apart in 
the row. If a double row hedge is wanted, 
the plants should be “staggered" and the 
rows not closer than two feet apart. This 
applies to all planting in hedges. Ninety 
per cent of all i)lantings for “immediate 
effect’’ defeat their own purposes and the 
result is the spindly, ragged looking shrub 
plantings so common throughout America. 
It is best to wait a year or two for final 
results. 
It is an interesting subject and one which 
might well be discussed at greater length 
in your columns. Many nurserymen be- 
lieve that the more i)lants they sell, the 
better business they are doing. Fortunate- 
ly there are a few who take a more correct 
attitude. H.vrl.vx P. Kelsey. 
Salem, Mass. 
It seems to me that the correct idea of a 
cemetery fence is that of a protecting en- 
closure. Such an enclosure should protect 
not only from intrusion luit from the gaze 
of people passing by. It should therefore 
generally be as high as the eyes of people 
riding or walking along a bounding high- 
way. 
If funds were available a Imick wall with 
a plantation of shrubbery on both sides 
would be suitable. An economical fence 
would be a woven-wire fence as a protec- 
tion against intrusion, with tall-growing 
shrulxs, lilacs, honeysuckles, syringa bushes, 
viburnums, common barberries and other 
shrubs of similar size, planted on each side. 
It is often advisable to put the fence four 
or five feet inside of the actual boundary 
in order to have room for outside planting. 
Thunberg’s barberries are good as far as 
they go, but they usually do not grow high 
enough. A variety of shrubs, including 
some trees arranged with artistic grouping 
would be more interesting and more beau- 
tiful than a uniform hedge formed with one 
kind of a shrub such as privet or barberry. 
Chicago. O. C. Simoxds. 
Preserving Old Chestnut Tree. 
Editor asked and answered : One of our 
board of commissioners has a chestnut tree 
on his lawn, 25 years old or more ; it is 
about 18 inches in diameter. This tree is 
free from blight, and he would like to 
know if it can be sprayed or protected, and 
if so with what. There is no other chest- 
nut tree within from one-eighth to one- 
qiiarter mile. — W. C., Mass. 
There is no chemical that you can spray 
on chestnut trees and preserve them from 
the diaporthe parasitica. .'\ tree once in- 
fested is bound to go, but you can take the 
precaution of seeing that the tree has no 
wonnds, and if a wound is detected to have 
it thoroughly cauterized attd covered with 
coaltar. I'he disease prefers to infest a tree 
through wounds. It is also important, as 
