PARK AND CEMETERY. 
267 
An agreement, similar to the one for 
new mausoleums, will be made with owners 
of mausoleums now standing, and they are 
urgently solicited to make such provision 
for the future care and preservation of 
their mausoleums, while those most inter- 
ested are yet living, and to the end that 
these structures shall forever remain intact 
as places of sepulture and as ornaments 
to the cemetery. 
In making such an agreement with ref- 
erence to a mausoleum now standing, it is 
essential that provision first be made, for 
putting the building in the best possible 
condition before the cemetery is charged 
with the care of it. 
* * * 
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago I had 
my board pass this resolution : 
“The erection of vaults or tombs wholly 
or partly above ground will not be allowed 
without special permission of the Mount 
Hope Commission and according to their 
rules and regulations; therefore, 
“No mausoleum or tomb shall be here- 
after erected without a sum of money, 
deemed sufficient for the permanent care 
of same, having first been deposited with 
the commissioners, and in no case not 
less than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) 
and as much more as the superintendent 
may deem necessary after plans and speci- 
fications have been submitted for approval.” 
We have lost, to my knowledge, two lot 
purchasers on account of this rule, and in 
another case the purchaser, after buying a 
lot in another cemetery with the idea of 
building a mausoleum, came back and pur- 
chased from us, having, after thinking over 
the matter more seriously, seen the wisdom 
of perpetuating the building after an ex- 
pense of $10,000 to $12,000. 
John W. Keller, 
Supt., Mt. Hope Cemetery. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
* * * 
We have no set rule for determining the 
amount that should be placed for the per- 
petual care of mausoleums based on their 
initial cost. Mausoleums vary considerably 
in both exterior and interior construction 
and choice of material, so that it would not 
be wise to make a figure at much less than 
25 per cent of the original cost of the 
cheaper class of mausoleums — i. c., where 
the lot holder has been influenced more by 
the number of crypts he could get for a 
certain amount than excellence of design, 
construction and material. The better class 
of mausoleums could probably be main- 
tained at a lower rate, say, 15 per cent of 
the initial cost. Our method is to have an 
experienced contractor estimate on the 
cleaning and repointing of the interior and 
exterior once in every five or ten years. 
Then we add janitor service at so much 
per week or month ; added to this is the 
annual charge for cutting the grass and 
keeping the sod in repair. We find that 
nearly all of our lot holders nowadays take 
the endowment of their mausoleums into 
consideration and many place the funds as 
soon as they are completed, so that in a 
new cemetery I believe it to be a wise and 
reasonable regulation to require this en- 
dowment. Wm. J. Proud, 
Supt., Laurel Hill Cemetery. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
* * * 
Up to this time we have no regulation 
for the provision of special care funds for 
mausoleums. While this question has been 
and is still, under consideration, we are 
appealing to our lot owners, urging the im- 
portance to provide suitable provisions for 
the permanent care of their mausoleums, 
and we are meeting with considerable suc- 
cess. There is no doubt in our minds but 
that this is very important and necessary, 
and should appeal to every cemetery in a 
like manner. With reference to the re- 
quired amounts necessary for the preser- 
vation and repair of mausoleums, we deem 
it avisable that each mausoleum be consid- 
ered individually, thereby carefully exam- 
ining the construction and the necessary 
repairs occasioned, and base our estimate 
accordingly. The fund is estimated to 
yield a 4 per cent income. We can hardly 
believe a percentage, based on the cost, can 
be depended upon. 
The Woodlawn Cemetery. 
By Fred R. Diering, Supt. 
New York City. 
REBUILDING WORN-OUT LAWNS 
An address before the Ohio Cemetery Superintendents’ Association, by J. C. 
Woodward, of Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland, ()., with discussion following. 
A lawn is a combination of the right 
kind of grasses in the right kind of soil, 
and taken care of in the proper manner. 
The first essential thing is the soil, and if 
it is not naturally adapted to making a 
lawn we should make such changes as 
might be necessary. The ideal soil com- 
bination is a bed of clay covered with from 
three to four inches of good loam which 
is as free from weed as it is possible to 
obtain. 
Ordinarily soils contain in some quantity 
such elements fis are required by the 
grasses for food. However, as they are 
grass feeders they soon exhaust the soil 
of its fertility, and if the good appearance 
of the lawn is to be maintained we must 
renew these elements such as potash, phos- 
phoric acid, and a large amount of nitro- 
gen. The best sort of potash is in wood 
ashes, which also contain about 50% lime. 
The best sort of phosphoric acid is in bone 
meal. The best sort of nitrogen is in well 
rotted manure. Bone meal is also a good 
source of nitrogen, and the particular ad- 
vantage in bone meal is that it gives up 
these fertilizing elements gradually, thus 
feeding the plants as they can use it. 
In our cemetery we have found that a 
good grade of manure is an excellent fer- 
tilizer, as it is quite free from weed seed. 
The kind of seed to use must be deter- 
mined by the kind of soil available, and 
the particular use to which the lawn is to 
be put. In this locality the natural grass 
is Kentucky blue grass, red top white 
clover, various kinds of bent grasses, rye 
grass and some other sorts are used for 
various purposes. It is desirable to use 
several in combination for the following 
reasons : 
The Kentucky blue grass takes from six 
to eight weeks to germinate and it will re- 
main in the ground sometimes a year be- 
fore it germinates. Consequently, when the 
Kentucky blue grass is sown alone the start 
is apt to be imperfect, and this gives us 
a good reason for using other grasses that 
will germinate more rapidly, so that the 
lawn will not only show green sooner, but 
will bind the Kentucky blue grass so that 
it will come up where it was sown, instead 
of washing out. 
Red Top is a particularly desirable va- 
riety to sow where the soil is inclined to 
be damp or too moist, and in such a local- 
ity Kentucky blue grass will not thrive as 
well. 
White Dutch clover is very frequently 
used in lawn mixtures because it is deeper 
rooted than the other light grasses, and 
will give the sod depth which it otherwise 
would not have. Being deeper rooted than 
the light grasses, white clover will bring 
to the surface for the benefit of the shallow 
rooted grasses the moisture that lies deeper 
in the ground than the roots of the latter 
penetrate. White clover is also beneficial 
to the lawn by taking from the air a large 
amount of nitrogen and placing it back 
into the soil through the nodules of its 
root system, and this is readily taken up 
by the other grasses as plant food. 
The best mixtures known to me that T 
think are best adapted to making a good 
cemetery lawn are as follows : 
30 lbs. Kentucky Blue, 20 lbs. Fancy Red 
Top, 30 lbs. Rhode Island Creeping Bent, 
with 5 pounds of White Dutch clover when 
used in a sandy soil, and only 2/ 2 pounds 
when used in clay soil, as the clover comes 
up naturally in the clay, while it dies out 
in the sand. 
If a little liner lawn is desired I would 
advise the use of 50 lbs. of Rhode Island 
Creeping Bent, 30 lbs. of Kentucky Blue 
and 20 lbs. of Fancy Red Top. 
The most practical time to sow grass 
seed is in the spring, as early as the 
weather will permit, continuing until the 
middle of June, and again in the fall — from 
August 1st to October 1st. The latter date, 
however, is rather extreme, as the weather 
