PARK AND C 
AND LANDSCAPE 
E M E T E R Y 
GARDENING 
PUBLISHED BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
R, J. HAIGHT, President 
H. C. WHITAKER, Vice-President and General Manager 
O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
SUBSCRIPTION TERAIS: ■ United States and Possessions, Mexico and Cuba, one year, $2.00; two years. $2.50: three years. $5.00; five years. $S.OO. Canada and otner countries 
$2.50 a year. Single copies, 25 cents. Published on the 15th of the month. Copy for advertisements and reading matter should reach us by the first of the month. 
OCTOBER, 1916 
E D I T O R I A L 
VOL. XXVI No. 8 
Park Reports and Park Efficiency 
In a work of such vast e.xecutive detail as the management 
of a city park system, too much stress cannot be laid on 
efficient and accurate accounting and reporting. Many sug- 
gestions for better methods in accounting and executive detail 
are made in the address before the park superintendents’ con- 
vention by Air. F. S. Staley. He lays particular stress on the 
importance of a complete system of daily reports that will 
give instant and comprehensive survey of park operations at 
any time. The purpose of modern reporting, says Air. Staley, 
is to keep the executive and his assistants in constant touch 
with the progress of all work under way. It is to locate 
responsibility for waste and infidelity, and to give credit for 
efficiency and faithful service. It is not only to provide data 
for the work at hand but also to provide a basis for future 
plans and policies. A properly devised system of reports daily 
on the administrator’s desk is an index to the day’s activities, 
showing the unusual conditions that call for his investiga- 
tion and action, and may be a guide to the solution of future 
problems. For instance, the receipts from a certain refectory 
show a gradual decrease from the beginning of the season 
over the receipts of the last year. This would mean investi- 
gating conditions at the refectory to see to what particular 
cause the decrease was due and what steps were necessary to 
remedy the defects and make the refectory produce more 
revenue. Practical business men are scrapping obsolete ma- 
chinery, equipment and inefficient employees daily. In any 
case, daily reports should bring the matter to the attention of 
the executive early in the season, and instead of the refectory 
operating at a loss throughout the season, it can be made to 
pay a profit. The story told by the reports in the particular 
case might point the way to a profitable readjustment of the 
entire refectory system. 
The keeping of records is more work, but it eliminates guess- 
ing which is decidedly hazardous in business. The business 
executive would not be overwhelmed by multitudinous detail. 
Proper reporting should bring all the essential operating 
details to a focus daily on the executive’s desk. He would 
then have an opportunity to view the whole department in 
perspective, to plan, to systematize and organize, and to give 
his prompt and undivided attention to abnormal conditions. 
The value of modern reporting will not be underestimated 
when its purpose and its results are known. 
Axioms of Cemetery Management 
There are two addresses printed elsewhere in this issue that 
deserve the careful study of every man in or proposing to 
enter the cemetery business, and more especially that very 
recent class of cemetery men who have gone into the business 
by reason of their belief in its money-making possibilities. Air. 
Lawson points out the dangers of the professional promoter’s 
efforts in the high-financing of cemetery land, and Air. Smith 
offers some very practical suggestions about starting and 
managing a cemetery in a small city. There are some thoughts 
brought out in these two addresses that cannot be over-empha- 
sized, and ought to become axioms of practice for every 
cemetery manager or investor. 
In order for a new cemetery to succeed, there must be a 
real need in the community for another burial ground, either 
by reason of the lack of room in the older cemeteries or lack 
of modern methods of management. 
There must be adequate capital for the proper development 
of the grounds by the best modern methods; and one cemetery 
man recently estimated that it costs about $3,000 an acre just 
to put the ground in condition in a modern lawn cemetery. 
Developing a cemetery is not a real estate subdivision propo- 
sition; the difference between the price of farm land by the 
acre and cemetery lots by the square feet is not all profit. 
Quick returns for money invested should not be expected; 
profits on a privately owned cemetery can hardly be realized 
for ten or fifteen years. 
No new cemetery has any excuse for existing unless it is 
more modern and more beautiful than any other cemetery in 
the community. 
Every operation, every step in development should be care- 
fully planned by an expert; the selection of the site, and the 
planning of the grounds are especially technical matters; a 
misstep in the early stages of the development of a cemetery is 
almost sure to be fatal to its success. 
Business men who are going into the development of ceme- 
teries, will find these and many other suggestions of value 
in the two addresses mentioned. 
Studying Diseases of Roses 
Alembers of the American Rose Society have been raising 
money to co-operate in employing a trained plant pathologist 
to investigate diseases of roses. Sufficient money has now 
been obtained to assure this work, which is already under way. 
Doctor L. AI. Alassey, of the .New A'ork State College of 
Agriculture, Cornell University. Ithaca, is conducting the 
investigations. It is hoped that all growers of roses will now 
take advantage of this arrangement, not only to obtain what 
little information there is already at hand, but to co-operate in 
ways which will be suggested from time to time. Through 
co-operation with Doctor Alassey, the growers w'ill greatly 
increase the efficiency of the investigation and obtain the 
greatest returns from their investment, h'irst of all it seems 
desirable to make a rose disease survey such as will aetjuaint 
us with the various diseases, together with their range and 
the extent of injury caused by them in their country. In order 
that this survey may reach its maxiniuni efficiency, it will be 
riecessary for the growers to co-operate by sending specimens 
of diseased plants. Franked tags will be supplied on re(|uest. 
It is hoped that each grower will interest himself in this w'ork 
sufficiently to collect and send diseased material together 
with a brief statement regarding varieties affected, nature and 
extent of injury, time of appearance of the disease, and other 
points of interest which may have been noticed. .Acknowledg- 
ment of receipt of material will be made and such information 
as is available in the line of control will be given. Alany 
growers wdll be visited, but it is hardlj' necessary to say that 
it will be impossible to visit all. Further information of 
this w'ork may be had frotn II. II. W'hetzel, Head of the 
Department of Plant Pathology, New A'ork State College 
of Agriculture, Ithaca, N. V. 
