300 ANNTJAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



manifest in our national economy — narrow strips that we cannot get 

 away from. Tliey hem us in on every automobile and train ride. 

 They are with us even when we stay at home, for our telephone service 

 involves the rights-of-way of toll lines as well as roadside distribution 

 lines, and each electrical appliance we use involves mammoth transmis- 

 sion lines, as well as those for local distribution. Roadways, rail- 

 ways, and utility lines are thus lacing our country with superposed 

 patterns of ever-increasing complexity. What does all this amount 

 to, acreage-wise? No one knows, for no agency has ever made a rea- 

 sonable survey. One utility in a New England State claims it has 

 600 miles of transmission lines and 6,000 miles of distribution lines. 

 The average power company frequently has over 15,000 acres in 

 rights-of-way. The State of Ohio has over 16,000 miles of State 

 highways and over 70,000 miles of secondary roads, involving to- 

 gether 330,000 roadside acres, more than all State-owned forest land. 

 Iowa has 427,000 acres of secondary roads alone, comprising a greater 

 acreage than the largest county in the State. It is not unreasonable 

 to assume that there are 20 million acres of roadsides and rights-of- 

 way, not including those of the railroads, in the eastern forested 

 areas of the United States. It is this land with which we are con- 

 cerned in this article. Possessing high values for the public and for 

 the Nation in addition to its immediate use, such tracts can be managed 

 for multiple purposes or they can be subjected to practices detrimental 

 to their owners as well as to the public. Each of these types of land 

 has its own special problems. 



ROADSIDES 



A roadway may be defined as the roadbed itself, flanked by several 

 parallel belts that have different functions, depending on what use 

 is to be made of the highway. Adjacent to the paved or traveled 

 part is a bare, oiled or grassed shoulder 5 to 10 feet wide. At the 

 far side of this is generally a ditch for drainage. Beyond is a 5- to 

 1.5-foot strip, which is mowed once or twice a year. And farthest 

 from the road is a strip 10 to 20 or more feet wide, which is not mowed 

 and which often bears telephone and power lines. In addition, there 

 are poles, posts, and signs, immediately adjacent to which no vegeta- 

 tion is wanted and treatment for which is beyond the scope of this 

 discussion. 



The mowed strip offers no serious problems. It rarely has any 

 woody brush on it. The very process of mowing, perhaps by remov- 

 ing what would otherwise be a heavy mulch of dead grass, seems to 

 favor the growth of colorful flowers. In many parts of the country 

 these are the brightest parts of the landscape, and the succession of 

 flowering forms is a never-ending delight through the seasons, from 

 the first bloodroots to the last asters. Strange as it may seem, some 



