46 



the railroad for some of the cultivated plants of the 

 farmer are a railroads worst weeds. For in general 

 all plants which occasion expense of any kind to a rail 

 road company are its weeds. These observations have 

 only extended over a period of two years and over the 

 North-eastern and Eastern central portion of Ohio. 

 There is attached a list of about three hundred plants 

 which come undei' the head of railroad weeds. 



For convenience of example they may be divided 

 into three groups, which are quite as distinctly 

 marked as the flora of a bog. a rich woods or a lake- 

 beach. These three groups comprise first ; plants 

 growing on the track proper in the ballast, giving a 

 very bad appearance ; and railroads try to get nd of 

 at least these weeds : second, plants growing in the 

 ditches thereby causing improper drainage. These 

 have to be dug out or hoed out in order to give an un- 

 impeded flow of water ; third, the weeds gTowing on 

 the property between the track and the fences. These 

 are the weeds that you see growing by any roadside 

 and are simply cut down with scythe or brush-hook. 



Of all plants growing in the track wheat, bride- 

 weed, ephorbias and foxtail grass give the most 

 trouble. In the ditches the lime-forming algae 

 (notably species of Chara) and the various species of 

 Polyganum are particularly bad. 



The conditions of track and track ballast vary so 

 greatly from crushed stone, slag, ashes, cinder to 

 gravel and dirt that the amount of weeds in the ballast 

 depends greatly on its character. Of these various 

 kinds of ballast, the smallest number of weeds grow 

 in slag and cinder ballast and the greatest in dirt. 

 When I tell you that the expense to some of the rail- 

 roads in getting rid of their weeds amounts to as much 

 as $140.00 per mile per year then you can see it is a 

 matter of some importance. If an average of $50.00 

 per mile per year is taken, and since the mileage of 

 main track in Ohio alone is 9000 miles (exclusive of all 

 side tracks), the total cost per year to railroads in 



