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TIIBMS * 1« 3 0 ° PKR YEAR. 
TBBOTS. 1 single Nio., Eight Cent#. 
YOL XXIII. NO. 7 
Janirsrap* 
CEMETERIES: 
Arrange me «t and 1'lantinff. 
BY F. It. ELLIOTT. 
It is said every man has a harp, the strings 
of which he is continually disposed to strike. 
Now, in my harp, there 
is a string connected 
with the arrangement, 
improvement and dec¬ 
oration of our cemete¬ 
ries, the homes of the 
dead, that I love to 
strike upon about as 
often as I do on that 
connected with the 
rural embellishment of 
the homos of the liv¬ 
ing. Iu truth, like all 
others, L nm occasion¬ 
ally called to assist iu 
laying down the re¬ 
mains of what was 
once active life, and 
iny eye runs over the 
tangled weeds, broken 
or falling head stones—the overgrown hedge, 
and the thicket of rose briai-9, privet, cedar, 
honeysuckle and trumpet flowering vines, 
that surround me while attending the duties 
and ceremonies of a burial in one of our 
country cemeteries; and I feel that there is 
a necessity for some one to strike the string 
for a change, ami to keep on striking until 
every neighborhood shall awaken to the im¬ 
portance of so arranging, planting and keep¬ 
ing the burial place, that it shall present a 
constant attraction, and become a resort for 
the living — an association of death with 
beauty and enjoyment, and a place to lay 
down to rest quietly in a garden which shall 
be frequently visited by our relatives and 
friends. 
In Ibis connection, as pictures sometimes 
convey more ideas than words, I have made 
and herewith send two little sketches of 
cemeteries—one at the 
left as they are, and 
one at the right as im¬ 
proved. Iu the first, 
straight lines and nar¬ 
row pathways a n d 
roads prevail, while 
each owuer’s lot has 
been graded, planted, 
and hedged to suit his 
fancy during a rush of 
sensitive, impulsive 
feeling, and then left 
to take care of itself. 
A large weeping wil¬ 
low is the center of 
one lot, while four of 
the Kilmarnock wil¬ 
lows make the corners 
of the next one; and 
the next, being raised 
two feet, with a little 
ditch all around, has 
a hedge with a poplar 
or Balm of Gilead tree 
in its center, and three 
or four headstones half 
fallen to the ground, 
hut so dingy with moss 
and mold that their record is almost oblit¬ 
erated. Such is about a fair description of 
the condition and arrangement of most 
ccmtiy cemeteries, as shown in my left-hand 
sketch. 
In my sketch at the right it will he seen 
the center of the plot is left smooth and 
open, that the grass may be mown from 
time to time, and kept down as upon a lawn 
attached to a fine garden. A monument or 
two may be placed there, and here and there 
a movable chair, for the use of those who 
may be sick and infirm. The recording 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER N. Y, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18,1871. 
[Ent<?rfld uccordlnp to Act of CoiiKross, in the year 1871. by I). D. T. MoonE, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, nt Washington.] 
_______ .(41 I*nrU Row, New Yorlt. 
OFFICES:} 82 iiuilalo 81 ., Rochester. 
WHOLE NO. 1099. 
stones are all sunk to a level with the earth, 
and their upper edges give the record. The 
drive way is varied in its outline, and while 
I have sketched iu some planting for the 
the center plot, the outer bonier 1 have left 
unfilled, because it would not benefit the 
picture, and makes in the filling additional 
cost of engraving. The outer border should, 
however, be planted irregularly in masses 
and groups, singly and in lines; and in this 
In (Uartmur. 
MILITARY POST GARDENS, 
TnK accompanying sketch of Fort San¬ 
ders, Wyomiug Territory, and its garden, 
was received some time since, and w T as 
made by a Sergeant of Company C, Fourth 
prairie city, necessity, that “ mother of in¬ 
vention,” has happily proved that here, as 
elsewhere in more favored regions, the soil 
is quite equal to the emergency of yielding 
all the vegetables, etc., required by the new¬ 
ly settled inhabitants. 
The soil is of a sandy loam, interspersed 
freely with limestone rock; yet in spile of its 
unpropilious character, there are lew locali¬ 
ties in which a finer crop of potatoes can be 
CEMETERIES-ARRANaBMBNT -A.INTX3 lEPI^-A-TSTTIKT G-. 
planting the tall and stately should be kept 
the outer edge, provided the ground be 
level, that the picture from within may be 
complete at any iuside view by the points 
of the trees toning against the sky for the 
background. 
At a future time I will strike this string 
again and enumerate some' of the most beau¬ 
tiful and appropriate of trees and shrubs for 
planting in cemeteries. 
-- 
THE BEST LAWN GRASS. 
Mr, Barky said, in his address before the 
Western New York Horticultural Society, 
that red-top is the best grass for a lawn, 
about filly or sixty pounds to the acre. Fifty 
pounds will he sufficient, if the seed be clean 
and good, which it seldom is. Some people 
recommend white clover, say one-fourth, to 
Infantry. Accompanying it was an inter¬ 
esting Letter, from which . W ;..ke the fol¬ 
lowing extracts: T 
Your readers may not ho aware how 
much the military are doing every year 
towards redeeming the desert and proving 
the fertility of the soil in some of the hard 
looking corners of the AVest. Here at Fort 
Sanders, AVyoming Territory - , we are at an 
elevation of 7,101 feet, and in what is called 
the Laramie Valley, for the same reason, it 
is supposed, that the village of Laramie is 
called a city; however, if a billiard table 
looks like a valley, then we are in one, for a 
bleaker, a more dismal, treeless stretch of 
land than this, that lies as far as the eye can 
reach to the northwest from this post, it 
would be difficult to find. Apart from a 
line of distant mountains to the west, (spurs 
of the Rockies,) and dead looking hills on 
raised. They are of immense size, and of 
the most superior quality. Lust spring the 
commanding officer, Capt. E. M. Coates, 
Fourth Infantry, caused a great variety of 
vegetables to be sown, among which may be 
named cabbage, spinnach, lettuce, radishes, 
onions, beets, turnips, cucumbers, Scotch 
kale, egg plant, squashes, pumpkins, pota¬ 
toes, peas, beans, string beans, etc., etc., all 
of which flourished. 
The necessity for irrigation which two 
years ago was a great drawback to farming, 
no longer exists, the seasons having ap¬ 
parently changed to suit the new order of 
things In this lately unpeopled region. 
The gardens of the military posts on the 
frontiers are a source, not only of comfort to 
the soldiers, but prove excellent agricultural 
schools for officers and men; and many a 
one who enters the army in total ignorance 
FORT SANDERS. WYOMING TERRITORY —LOOKING FROM THE GARDEN. 
raised an acre of nettles, by mistake, for 
turnips. 
-- 
EARLY VEGETABLES. 
It is not. every family that owns a good 
hot-bed ; but tins need not deter them from 
trying to produce a few early vegetables. A 
few boxes or flower pots, filled with fine 
earth, may be placed in a window, and au- 
_ swer the purpose of a 
=||§s|lL^- hot-bed. Tomatoes, 
— rYrY— cabbages, peppers, and 
similar plants, may be 
started in a warm 
room, and by trans¬ 
planting once or twice 
before the lime arrives 
for setting out, they 
will be several weeks 
in advance of those 
grown in the garden. 
Avoid the too com¬ 
mon mistake of sow¬ 
ing the seed too thick¬ 
ly, thereby crowding 
the plants, and causing 
them to grow tall and 
slender. A half dozen 
good, stocky plants 
will give more fruit and much earlier, 
than several dozen poor, spindling, sickly 
cues. A small flower pot, six inches in di¬ 
ameter, is large enough to start two or three 
dozen plants of one sort,; and when they are 
two or three inches high, transplant into 
boxes or larger pots, giving each plant room 
to grow. If they grow loo tall and slender, 
pinch off the upper portion of the stem, and 
this will cause them to grow stocky. Al¬ 
ways keep the plants where they will receive 
the direct rays of the sun during the greater 
part of the day. With lmt, little care and a 
trifling expense, every family can raise all 
the early vegetable plants required. 
-- 
GARDEN NOTES AND QUERIES. 
I.inin Itc.-uii Culture. 
A correspondent of the Country Gen¬ 
tleman says that the 
principal point in the 
successful culture of 
the Lima bean is to get 
the seed well started. 
The best way of doing 
this is to plant in a hill 
of light earth, made so 
by silting the- soil, if it 
can be had in no other 
way. A shovelful of 
well - rotted manure 
should go into each 
hill. He mixes sand 
and muck, and after 
placing each seed bean 
with the germ down¬ 
ward in the hill, he 
sills the covering over 
it through a willow 
sieve. Corn planting 
time is the right time 
to plant Lima beans. 
The after cultivation 
is the same as for the 
common pole bean. 
be mixed with red-top, and this does very 
well, but I prefer the pure red-top, Early in 
the spring is the best time for seeding a lawn. 
All preparatory work should be performed 
in the Hill, so that during the winter the 
ground may settle, and any defects that may 
be developed, can be corrected before sow¬ 
ing. In spring, at the fitting moment, give 
a light plowing, a good harrowing, pick off 
all the stones, sow the seed, and give it a 
good rolling, which finishes the work. By 
sowing early in the spring, you may have a 
respectable lawn before midsummer. 
the east, there is nothing to attract the eye, 
save “grease wood," grass, and the occa¬ 
sional carcass of a long defunct buffalo; 
indeed, no fitter name could possibly have 
been suggested for this region than the one 
it holds—the Black Hills. 
A more unsuspicious locality, in appear¬ 
ance, for a farmer to settle upon, could 
scarcely he found, and a short time ago the 
idea of cultivating the soil would have been 
considered, to say the least, very unprofitable. 
Butsince the establishment of a military post, 
of railroad machine shop, and the inevitable 
of agriculture, leaves it at the expiration of 
his term of service, not only a good soldier, 
hut an excellent farmer, and competent to 
become a good and useful citizen. 
The success, however, of military farming 
at poets, in a great measure, depends upon 
the commanding officer, and Fort Sanders is 
fortunate in this respect, for its commandant 
can not only take a regiment in hand, but 
enter practically and scientifically into the 
minutest details of agriculture. Your corres¬ 
pondent, however, once had the honor of 
serving under a commanding officer who 
Ucl'ln iu l.iulit. Soils. 
We have tried, for 
several years, to raise the long routed 
beets—such as Long Blood, Sugar, and 
similar sorts—in a light, sandy soil, but 
without success. All the turnip-rooted 
sorts have done well; and we are inclined 
to think there is sonic truth in the theory 
t hat certain kinds of roots require resistance 
to keep them healthy and vigorous. If any 
of the numerous readers of the Rural New - 
Yorker have bad any experience of this 
kind, we hope they will be kind enough to 
communicate the facts relating to the same 
through our columns. 
