PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
PUBLISHED BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
R. J. HAIGHT, President H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and General Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
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$2.50 a year. Single copies, 25 cents. Published on the 25th of the month. Copy for advertisements and reading matter should reach us by the first of the month. 
AUGUST, 1916 
EDITORIAL 
VOL. XXVI No. 6 
The Cemetery Convention at Norfolk 
The annual convention of the Association of American Ceme- 
tery Superintendents, to be called to order in Norfolk, Va., in a 
few days, promises to provide a program of unusual interest 
and a meeting that ought to be one of the best in the history of 
the organization. Cemeterv- officials in the southeastern sections 
who have not had the convention close to them for some years 
should make especial effort to attend this meeting and become 
identified with the organization. They can be assured of a pro- 
gram that will practically profit them ; the opportunity to visit 
cemeteries in neighboring cities for valuable field study, and the 
inspection of a historic section of our country of surpassing 
interest. The mere mention of some of the practical topics to be 
discussed from the experience of able men ought to be sufficient to 
take any cemetery man to Norfolk who is interested in any of 
the follovving problems of cemetery management: 
“Perpetual Care of Monuments and Other Structures (illus- 
trated by lantern slides) ; “Commercialism of Cemeteries” ; “Expe- 
rience with Motor Trucks”; “Starting and Operating a Modern 
Cemetery”; “A Few Shrubs and Perennials”; “The Relations of 
the Monument Man to the Cemetery” ; “.An Evening w'ith the 
Stereopticon” ; “Cemeteries Operating in the Smaller Cities.” 
Every cemetery official in the Southeast is missing a good share 
of his professional education if he fails to attend the Norfolk 
convention. 
Shade Trees For Adverse City Conditions 
The problem of “What Trees to Plant” is an ever-present one 
and one that always needs special local study. On another page 
is an interesting report on trees suitable for the trying con- 
ditions always found in large cities. Successful tree growth on 
streets in a city like New York is something considerably more 
than a question of ordinary planting and care. To secure any 
considerable number of permanent shade trees on the streets of 
Manhattan is a problem which is without question one of the 
most difficult ones yet approached by city foresters or park 
authorities in this country. In addition to the ordinary difficulties 
which beset tree growth under city conditions, such as pavements 
which shut out water and air from the roots; trunk injury due 
to heavy traffic; weakened vigor to resist insects and disease, due 
to gas-poisoned soil and smoke and dust-burdened air, we have 
in Manhattan many additional hazards to overcome. Thus above 
ground, the very general presence of high buildings upon com- 
paratively narrow streets causes a very serious lack of sunshine, 
light and air and produces a prevalence of tearing, swirling winds. 
Below the surface we have even more abnormal conditions in the 
extensive use of the area beneath the street for subways, sewers, 
conduits and vaults. 
In the study of tree planting in our large cities, the foresters 
Legal Status of 
On another page in this issue is a legal discussion on a very 
important phase of cemetery regulations that ought to be care- 
fully studied by every cemetery official. It relates specifically to 
the question of whether cemetery rules may be made “retro- 
acting,” so to speak. That is to say, if rules are passed requiring 
foundations to be built by the cemetery or work done on lots 
in certain ways, can these regulations control work contracted 
before the rules were adopted? In brief, our legal advice is that 
such rules are retroactive if reasonable, and if not in violation 
of any specific provision in the lot holder’s deed or contract. 
It is a well-settled principle of law that rights which have vested 
under a contract cannot be affected by a subsequently enacted 
law or by the acts of one of the parties to the contract. But 
this principle does not apply to such cases as cited. It has been 
settled by court decisions that it is within the powers of a 
cemetery association to control building of foundations, setting of 
markers, corner posts, and other work on the grounds, except as 
a lot owner may have, by express provision in his deed to the 
who made this report for New York call attention to the necessity 
of careful study to determine the following facts: 
(1) On what streets shall trees be planted? (The high cost 
as above explained makes it impracticable to attempt to plant the 
entire borough, and likewise the present and future use and con- 
dition of many streets makes successful planting upon them 
impracticable, if not impossible.) 
(2) What kind, type and size of trees can be used with assur- 
ance of success under the peucliar adverse conditions which 
prevail ? 
(3) What will it cost to do the work on the different classes 
of streets? (Since the conditions of the streets differ so widely, 
no uniform system of planting can be used which will be most 
efficient and economical in all cases. Different types of planting 
must be determined upon for the different conditions which are to 
be met.) 
(4) What form of organization will be necessary for securing 
and maintaining satisfactory street tree growth according to these 
determined facts? 
(5) What is a reasonable budget for the organization and 
program thus determined upon? 
Cemetery Rules 
lot, obtained the right to control such matters himself. So that 
if the association had not by deeds to the lots or otherwise parted 
with the right to regulate work, the rule, if reasonable, is 
enforceable even as regards work already contracted for when 
it was passed. But if it appears that the rule was not adopted 
in good faith to secure uniformity in construction of foundations, 
etc., or for some other reasonable purpose, but was adopted solely 
as a means of profit to the association, and that the association 
is charging excessive amounts for building foundations and set- 
ting markers and corner posts under the protection of its monop- 
oly, then it is believed lot owners are not bound by the rule and 
can have it adjudged to be void as unreasonable. 'Ihe courts 
have in nearly every instance in recent years where such matters 
have been in litigation held for the cemetery's right to control 
improvements on its grounds, and this attitude will I)e of increas- 
ing benefit to cemeteries that are trying to modernize old grounds 
as well as those that are adopting modern regulations for future 
development. 
