RAILWAY STATION GROUNDS. 



359 



courag"ement should be given for eating in 

 the open air ; for sketching and the use of 

 the camera, thus leading the citizen out into 

 contact with nature to become a student of 

 her beauty. It was a courteous thing of the 

 doctor, now over thirty years president of 

 Harvard, to conduct our party through the 

 yards and halls of the great university, 

 pointing out the interesting features. 



SCHOOL GARDEN WORK 



This was treated by D. J. Crosby, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, 

 D. C, who divided them into teachers' 

 gardens and pupils' gardens, the former 

 being for the aid to the teaching, and often 

 utilized to help make up the teacher's salary, 

 which is the European method ; and the 



latter being entirely in the pupils interest, 

 who is entirely responsible for their keeping. 

 In Europe there are over 100,000 school 

 gardens, and the scheme is being widely 

 adopted in America. 



Our excursions about the city were 

 highly educative, affording a fine study 

 of school playgrounds, school gardens, 

 and opportunities of views in the Char- 

 leston and Franklin parks, such as not 

 surpassed for picturesque beauty anywhere 

 in North America. Nor must we omit a 

 mention of the Arnold Arboretum with its 

 wonderful collection of trees and shrubs, 

 where of lilacs alone we passed one contin- 

 uous group of one hundred and sixty 

 varieties. 



EAILWAT STATION GKOUNDS 



NEED OF IMPROVEMENT— GRAND TRUNK 

 AND CANADIAN PACIFIC STATIONS COM- 

 PARED WITH BOSTON AND ALBANY RAIL- 

 WAY STATIONS — NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



THE spirit of improvement is so gener- 

 ally discussed that it has even reached 

 the Railway Corporations, and is evidenced 

 in the transformation of the barren spots of 

 sand and rubbish about their stations, 

 bridges and terminals into lovely little 

 lawns, bordered with pretty shrubbery and 

 enlivened with beautiful flowers. The old 

 fashioned stations along the line of the 

 Grand Trunk, which were devoid of archi- 

 tectural features, are now being replaced by 

 others of beautiful designs, and in some 

 cases decorated with beautiful climbers. "It 

 is one object of the American Park and Out 

 Door Association," in the words of ex- 

 president Holden at our Milwaukee meeting, 

 to teach the owners of railroads to build 

 beautiful depots, to lay out pretty gardens 

 and grounds about them, to make the path- 

 way through the country in which their 



roads run attractive. It is our mission to 

 go through the school districts of the country, 

 where there is so much neglect, and help 

 school boards to lay out grounds, plant 

 trees, and make handsome play-grounds for 

 the children, and when new school houses 

 are built to make them things of beauty, and 

 not simply dry-goods boxes or brick vaults 

 without form or color or any other attrac- 

 tion." 



"I am pleased to note," said president 

 E. J. Parker, "that the New York Central 

 Railroad has recently engaged the services 

 of a landscape architect. I am at present 

 urging upon the officials of the Chicago, 

 Burlington and Quincy Railroad that they 

 stop planting annuals and adopt the use of 

 native shrubs and trees. The annuals are 

 but short lived, passing away with the first 

 frost, and much could be done by the rail- 



