AMERICAN AGKRICURTUBIST. 
293 
half hogshead, or in a hole in the ground, 
and water enough added to 4 make a puddle 
somewhat thick, but too thin to be taken up 
on a shovel- Into this the roots are dipped. 
It furnishes manure directly to the fibres, 
and is to them what soaking seed in liquid 
manure, or rolling it in plaster, &c., is to the 
grain crop. For trees which are carried far, 
or are long out of the ground, this treatment 
is highly beneficial. For fresh roots in a 
good soil, it is objectionable, since it mats 
the small fibres together too much. This 
objection is not so valid when the puddle is 
made quite thin.— Ed. 
RURAL CEMETERIES. 
The founding of rural cemeteries in every 
part of our land is one of the very pleasing 
signs of the times. It indicates an advanc¬ 
ing civilization and refinement. It shows 
that humanity is not dying out from among 
us ; that there is still a profound love of 
Nature, and that, absorbed as we may be in 
the pursuit of wealth, honor and pleasure, 
we do not altogether forget our mortality. 
Some very good people, however, still 
cling to the old-fashioned burying-ground, 
partly through the force of old attachments 
and associations, and partly from a dislike 
of all modern innovation and change. It 
may be well, therefore, for us to keep this 
subject before the people, and to present 
such thoughts upon it as may from time to 
time occur to us. 
The old style grave-yard answered very 
well in the infancy of our settlements. 
Roads were then new and rough, and it was 
inconvenient to carry the dead any distance 
from the church or the centre of popula¬ 
tion. The first inhabitants, moreover, were 
busily occupied in felling the forests, clear¬ 
ing up the lands, and preparing them for the 
uses of agriculture. They had neither time 
nor money to build fine houses, to lay out 
ample grounds, and to adorn them with trees 
and walks, and fountains and flowers. All 
they could do was to provide for the pre¬ 
sent necessities and comforts of life. They 
built log houses or plain frame ones : if 
they indulged in the luxury of a “ front 
yard,” it was planted with a few locusts or 
poplars and lilacs, which took care of them¬ 
selves. This was the extent of their land¬ 
scape gardening. Their burying-grounds 
corresponded with their other improve¬ 
ments. They were strictly burying-grounds, 
and nothing else—small, square fields be¬ 
hind the meeting-house, or on some neigh¬ 
boring hill open to the winds, and to the cat¬ 
tle, too—where there was just room to bury 
the people, provided the space was duly 
economized. The bodies were interred close 
together, in long melancholy rows, like so 
many bricks. This was the custom every¬ 
where, and it was all that the people had 
time to do. But now the times have 
changed. Thanks to our industrious fore¬ 
fathers, the forests are now cleared away, 
the fields are ready for the plow, roads and 
bridges and school-houses have been built, 
and our general style of living has become 
comfortable, and often elegant. We now 
erect splendid churches, our private dwell¬ 
ings are neat and tasteful, and sometimes 
stately and grand. We have gardens and 
lawns planted with rare trees, shrubs and 
vines, to make our homes attractive. Shall 
we then make no improvement in our burial- 
places 1 Duty to the dead and the living re¬ 
quires us to do so. Neglect of this implies 
unpardonable thoughtlessness and absorp¬ 
tion in selfish pursuits, a disregard for the 
higher impulses of humanity, and even for 
the interests of religion. It is commonly 
conceded that the abode of the living, with 
its appendages, is an exponent of the taste 
and character of its occupants. As houses 
improve and their comforts and elegances 
multiply, so, as a general rule, does society 
improve. May we not with equal propriety 
resort to the houses of the dead for an index 
of the real state of society l 
Rural cemeteries are demanded on the 
score of health. A church yard, hemmed in 
as it often is by a dense population, cannot 
be as suitable a place for interments as the 
lull-sides and plains of the open country. 
Much worse is burial in crowded charnels 
beneath the floors of a church. 
Cemeteries as now planned are generally 
safe from any future encroachment. It is a 
very painful circumstance whenever it be¬ 
comes necessary, or is thought to be so, 
for a burial-place to be disturbed by the lay¬ 
ing out of streets through its hallowed 
grounds. Cemeteries, therefore, should be 
established remote from the centre of busi¬ 
ness, and in places where there is no human 
probability of their being ever desecrated in 
this manner. Our better feelings demand a 
place removed from the clamor of rising 
Babels, quite away from the rumbling of 
wheels and the tread of noisy multitudes ; 
a place where we can wander and be alone 
with nature and nature’s God; where the 
fading leaves may remind us of our mortal¬ 
ity, and the unchanging evergreen may also 
symbolize our immortality. 
The desire for a burial-place amid rural 
scenes is not the sickly sentimentality of 
feeble minds. Men of the strongest intel¬ 
lect and profoundest learning have shown 
the same predilection. Not to mention 
others, ■we now allude to the illustrious 
name of Webster. During his later years, 
he expressed a strong desire to be buried on 
the hill-side of his Marshfield estate, over¬ 
looking the wide-bosomed sea. On one of 
his last visits to the spot where now lie his 
remains, he made this touching remark : 
“ This will be my home ; and here three 
monuments will soon be erected ; one for 
the mother of my children, one each for 
Julia and Edward, and there will be plenty 
of room in front for the little ones that 
must soon follow them.” 
And this suggests the thought that rural 
cemeteries have a social and family aspect. 
Good men of old did not forget the ties of 
kindred even in death. The patriarch Jacob, 
when about to die in a foreign land, com¬ 
manded his descendants, saying, “ Bury 
me not in Egypt, but I will lie with my 
fathers.” And the dying Joseph gave orders 
that his bones should be carried from the 
land of the Pharaohs to the home of his an¬ 
cestors, and the promised abode of his de¬ 
scendants in Canaan. It is one of the bit¬ 
terest thoughts to a traveller dying in 
foreign countries, that he must be buried 
among strangers. And though it cannot ex¬ 
tract the sting from death, nor affect the 
condition of our disembodied spirits, it is 
yet most pleasing and comforting to think 
of resting at last by the side of our endeared 
kindred. It seems to give us a sort of com¬ 
panionship even in death, and suggests the 
idea and the hope of a reunion in heaven. 
In selecting a spot for a cemetery, care 
should be taken to have it as centrally situ¬ 
ated as possible for the whole population. 
It should be easily approached in all wea¬ 
thers, and at all seasons of the year. The 
soil should be dry naturally, or made so 
by under-draining. Several main carriage 
roads should be laid out through the grounds, 
and from these, footpaths should lead to 
every burial lot. Ample space should be 
left between the lots for the planting of 
trees. The common practice of crowding 
trees, large and small, into the lots and 
among the graves, is very objectionable, for 
reasons which will be obvious on a- little 
reflection. 
The kind’of, trees most suitable for ceme¬ 
teries does not seem to be universally agreed 
upon. Some persons would plant nothing 
but weeping willows : others, again, have 
an equal partiality for evergreens. But why 
not plant both 1 The willow may fitly rep¬ 
resent human sorrow, and the evergreen 
human faith and hope. There are also 
other pendulous trees, such as the European 
weeping ash, linden, birch, beech, elm, &c., 
which are as significant and more hardy 
than the common weeping willow. There 
is a new variety of willow, called the new 
American wmeping willow, somewhat dwarf¬ 
ish in its growth, which is perfectly hardy 
and very beautiful. Its small size recom¬ 
mends it for use in or near burial lots. 
Evergreen trees, we think, should predomi¬ 
nate somew'hat in a rural cemetery. Those 
of large growth, as the pines and spruces, 
should be planted on the margin of the 
grounds, or in large open spaces, while the 
smaller trees, or those which can easily be 
kept so, should be set within or near the 
lots. Of these last we may mention the 
juniper, yew, arbor vitee, hemlock, mahonia, 
holly, &c. 
The practice of surrounding burial lots 
with fences, whether of wood or iron, is 
much to be reprehended. Wood soon rots, 
and iron rusts and breaks in a few years, 
unless very carefully painted and watched 
over. And aside from this, the appearance 
of such stiff" enclosures, with their pickets 
and padlocks and paint, is faulty both on the 
score of taste and of humanity. They are 
out of keeping with the open and free aspect 
of nature. They have an exclusive, suspi - 
cious look. Why not enclose one’s ground 
with a low hedge, or simply indicate its 
boundaries by inconspicuous posts of granite 
or marble 1 The whole cemetery would 
then present the appearance of a beautiful 
piece of landscape gardening, of a select 
portion of the earth’s surface, protected 
