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HORTICULTURE 



April 21, 1906 



How this Railroad Station Was Improved. 



In the spring of 1905 the grounds of 

 the Erie station at Tallmadge, Ohio, 

 were in a very bad condition — a blot 

 on the landscape and a disgrace to the 

 railroad. When the depot was built 

 12 years before, a tidy park lying in 

 the angle of the highway and tracks 

 was graded and grassed and three 

 evergreens and a catalpa set out. I 

 think the agent paid for the trees. He 

 took great interest in the appearance 

 of the grounds, and while he stayed 

 they were kept in nice order, with a 

 miscellaneous flower bed of rectangu- 

 lar form about 7x30 feet. He moved 

 away, and soon after an interlocking 

 system connecting the double tracks 

 east with the single one west, was in- 

 stalled; business and number of 

 trains increased, and succeeding agents 

 had enough to do without mowing 

 lawns. In the spring of 1904 the 

 writer, who was supervisor of high- 

 ways at the time, was appointed a 

 committee by the village improve- 

 ment society to labor with the rail- 

 road management with a view of hav- 

 ing the grounds kept tidy, and if pos- 

 sible adorned with flowers. I was met 

 with blunt refusal, the reason ad- 

 duced being that the road was being 

 managed with the most rigid economy. 

 After much cogitation I settled upon 

 a plan of action. It was to have the 

 society furnish a good lawn mower, 

 provided the section boss would fur- 

 nish a man to use it, and I would fur- 

 nish the cannas for a large and showy 

 bed. At the April annual meeting of 

 the Improvement Society the mower 

 was unanimously voted for, and I put 

 the proposition in writing to the sub- 

 division supervisor of the Erie tracks. 

 He O. Kd. it, and the section boss 

 cleaned up the lawn and spaded the 

 flower bed, which had the remains of 

 last year's weeds, some self-sown 

 petunias and some scattering perennial 

 poppies. 



On the 27th of May, I planted an 

 oval bed of 35 Egandale cannas 6x12 

 feet. At either end two feet away I 



placed a circular bed 40 inches in di- 

 ameter of twenty dwarf petunias of 

 the finest strain I have ever seen. 

 These were in bud and showed consid- 

 erable bloom on Memorial Day, three 

 days later. The cannas were from 

 five-inch pots and began to bloom in 

 two weeks. They had also the ad- 

 vantage of the bronze foliage from the 

 start. Concentric marks two inches 

 apart were made in the fine soil 

 around the beds and lawn grass seed 

 sown in them, which by mid-July 

 covered the ground and was mowed 

 with the lawn. My proposition re- 

 served my right to move and take the 

 plants after Oct. 20. I sold four canna 

 roots; three were stolen and the re- 

 maining 28 made nearly 200 divisions 

 which I have at this writing nicely 

 started in 3 and 4-inch pots. It will 

 be seen that I used stock plants for 

 ornamenting the station park, and 

 thus kept my cake while the flower- 

 loving public helped eat. The idea of 

 thus using stock plants came to me 

 several years ago when looking at 

 Dreer's acres of cannas and other flow- 

 ers, and again at a western establish- 

 ment. Why not farm out cannas and 

 phlox and dahlias where they will be 

 appreciated and well cared for and 

 take them back in the fall, or do as I 

 did — borrow railroad parks for garden 

 ground? I might add that in early 

 November I planted the large bed to 216 

 early tulips in three colors a diagonal 

 band of five rows across the middle 

 separating the others. The round 

 beds were planted to 40 hyacinths 

 each, a high grade being used. This 

 was wholly out-of-pocket, business "for 

 the good of the order," but as my 

 neighbors and I go by nearly every 

 day, it will be about as good as having 

 them on the lawn at home. 



L. B. PIERCE. 



We extend our sincere sympathy to 

 our — and everybody's — friend, Philip 

 J. Foley of Chicago, on the death of 

 his five-year-old child. May sorrow 

 so deep never again come to him is 

 our heartfelt wish. 



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