1490 



RAILROAD GARDENING 



RAILROAD GARDENING 



It may be well to begin an account of railroad garden- 

 ing with an historical sketch. 



The Movement in Ungland. — Flanting has been done 

 on the station-grounds of some English railways for 

 many years, but it is almost exclusively limited to 



2065. Ameliorated Radishes, fourth generation (X K). 

 After Carriere. (See Radish, page 1488.) 



purely ornamental gardening. The corporations do little 

 beyond offering prizes to station-masters and their as- 

 sistants. This system has been in operation for about 

 twenty-five years on the Great Eastern, since 1885 on 

 the Midland, and for a shorter t-ime on the Great West- 

 ern railway. The prizes range from 5s. to £5, and in 

 1900 aggregated £300 on the Midland railway. The 

 little planting that is done by the railway companies 

 themselves is confined to a few trees of low growth near 

 stations, to a background of shrubs for some of the so- 

 called "platform gardens," and to sowing broom and 

 gorse on certain slopes of the permanent way between 

 stations. The " allotment gardens " that attract attention 

 on English roads are small tracts near stations that are 

 rented to employees of the roads, who use them as vege- 

 table, fruit, and, to some extent, as flower gardens. 

 The Railway Banks Floral Association is a new and 

 interesting factor in the improvement of English rail- 

 way rights of way. Lord Grey was the originator of the 

 novel and excellent scheme. The society is an organi- 

 zation for interesting owners of adjacent property, and 

 for collecting money and materials for sowing and 

 planting railway "banks" (downward slopes) and "cut- 

 tings " (upward slopes) of the permanent way, to the 

 ■end of making them more attractive. The results have 

 been eminently satisfactory. 



Denmark^s Progress. — In Denmark the railways be- 

 long almost without exception to the government, and 

 improvements are begun when the roads are constructed. 

 These consist of five classes of work: (1) planting of 

 station-grounds; (2) hedges as a substitute for fences; 

 (3) snow shelters; (4) vegetation on embankments as a 

 protection against erosion; (5) allotment gardens near 

 block signal stations. IManting on station-grounds is 

 purely for esthetic purposes; the other features, M'hile 

 possessing some attractions, are maintained chiefly for 

 their economic advantages. The materials for planting 

 are obtained from nurseries ("planteskoler " ) owned by 

 the roads and consist for the most part of shrubs, 

 largely coniferous. These nurseries, as well as the 

 entire planting, are under the supervision of a " plantoer," 

 i.e., a chief botanical instructor. The allotment gar- 

 <lens, like their English namesakes, are tracts near tlie 

 block signal stations where railway employees conduct 

 vegetable and fruit srardens for tlu^r own use, and 

 sometimes care for a few flowering plants. 



Conditions in Sweden. — Orimmcntixl planting has 

 been universal on government railways, as well as on 



the majority of private railways in Sweden since 1862. 

 According to the Royal Administration of the Swedish 

 State Railways, the following distinctions are made: 

 (1) decorative and fire protective plantings on station- 

 grounds; (2) mixed plantings (decorative and economic) 

 on "habitation grounds"; (3) plantings along the railway 

 lines as hedges or for protection against snow. Station 

 planting consists of trees selected to suit the climate of 

 various parts of the country, of shrubs, and of peren- 

 nials and annuals (flowering as well as bedding plants). 

 At the largest stations (only about 75) annuals are 

 exclusively used for "modern or elegant combinations." 

 The planting at habitation grounds consists of fruit 

 trees, small fruits, a few ornamental shrubs, some 

 flowering plants, and a small kitchen-garden. The state 

 railways yearly plant out about 40,000 hard-wooded plants 

 (trees and shrubs), and 400,000 soft-wooded plants 

 (perennials and annuals), which are nearly all grown at 

 five greenhouses, hotbeds and nurseries situated in 

 different parts of the country. About 20,000 fruit trees 

 and 500,000 gooseberries and currants are at present 

 planted oiit on the habitation grounds. On private rail- 

 ways the same scheme is followed on a smaller scale. 

 (See G.F. 2:36 for further facts regarding railway 

 planting in Sweden.) 



In various other countries there are scattered in- 

 stances of ornamental, economic and protective plant- 

 ing on railways, including the cultivation of fruits 

 along the rights of way of certain railways of Germany 

 and of France. 



The Canadian Pacific Railway Company has planted 

 a considerable part of its right of way to tamarack and 

 other suitable trees 

 to supply the tie ma- 

 aterial of the future. 



The director of the 

 association called 

 Het National Belang, 

 at Utrecht, says that 

 the association has 

 contracts with the 

 State Railway Com- 

 pany and the Holland 

 Railway to plant the 

 dykes of their roads. 

 Different kinds of 

 willows, low apple 

 and pear trees (half- 

 stam appel en peeren- 

 bloomen) and wild 

 prune trees are used, 

 the fruit of the last be- 

 ing "used for jams." 



The common quince 

 is used to a limited 

 extent in Uruguay for 

 binding earth on em- 

 bankments, and the 

 Paradise tree for 

 shading station plat- 

 forms. "TheOmbu is 

 the national tree of 

 Uruguay,— useless as 

 fuel or as timber, use- 

 less as food, but as 

 welcome as Jonah's 

 gourd at midday at 

 certain seasons." 



The Royal Railway De- 

 partment of Siam reports 

 through M. Kloke, acting 

 Director General of Rail- 

 ways, that efforts have for- 

 merly been made to estab- 

 lish protective Tamarind 

 hedges along emljanknicnts 

 in the Korat section, which 

 were destroyed by cattle ; 

 Eucalyptus trees grown 

 from seed received from Australia have developed 

 (|uickly into "stately trees"; and good success has 

 also resulted from the introduction of a tree from 

 Manila which is said to "strongly resenilile the cherry 



2066. 



Rat-tailed Radish (X %). 



Grown for its enormous pods. 



(See Radish, page 1488.) 



