PAILROAD GARDENING 



RAILROAD GARDENING 



1491 



tree, and is well suited for makiiiu; shady alleys"; and 

 that India rubber trees are used at sjualler stations. 



Remarkable work has been done in Algiers. The di- 

 rector of the P. L. M. Railroad Company writes that 

 about 525,000 trees have been planted between IStiO and 

 1875, of which 495,000 were forest trees and 30,000 fruit 

 trees. The prevailing forest trees are eucalypts and lo- 

 custs ; others are mulberry, plane, pine, cypress, wil- 

 low, poplar, oak, sycamore, mimosa. About one-fifth of 

 the forest trees were planted about stations and watch- 

 towers for ornament, and the remaining four-fifths were 



evinced an interest in the care of the grounds that at- 

 tracted the favorable attention of the assistant engi- 

 neer, who sent him men and material for grading and 

 sodding. This so encouraged the baggage-master that 

 he solicit(Hl the townspeople for money to buy seeds and 

 plants, and with such success that he maintained for 

 three years a flower garden that favorably impressed 

 the higher officials of the road, and led to the establish- 

 ment of similar gardens at other points, and eventually 



2067. Plans of Railroad Gardening. 



On the left, Aubiirndale Station, Boston & Albany R. R. The plan provides for a porta cochere, 

 driveways, steps to an overhead bridge and to an underground passage. 



On the right, Chestnut Hill Station, Mass. Both reproduced from "Garden and Forest." 



used in protective plantings. The fruit trees include 

 mandarin, orange, lemon, medlars from Japan, pome- 

 granate, apricot and almond. This information comes 

 through Daniel S. Kidder, U. S. Consul at Algiers. 



In Mexico some companies, notably the Mexican Cen- 

 tral, maintain flower gardens and parks at larger stations. 



Hailroad Gardening in the United States. — The first 

 traceable indications of the approach of the move- 

 ment in this country date back to about 1870. It was 

 not until several years later that infrequent allusions 

 to the work crept into print. From the year 1880, how- 

 ever, the movement gained in favor so rapidly that 

 the late W. A. Stiles said of it in Garden and Forest, 

 Mar. 1.3, 1889: "Railroad gardening has come to be con- 

 sidered a necessary part of construction and mainte- 

 nance among prosperous and progressive companies 

 seeking to develop local passenger business." 



Leading Spirits.— As nearly as can be determined 

 with certainty, the first 'railroad garden made in this 

 country occupied the triangular plot of ground formed 

 by the main line and the " Y " of the Baltimore & Ohio 

 railway, at Relay Station, where the through line from 

 Washington joins the main line from Baltimore to the 

 west. Frank Bramhall, of the passenger department of 

 the Michigan Central R. R., says of this plot: "I first 

 saw it just before the Civil War." "Harper's Magazine " 

 for April, 1857, gives a wood-cut of this station and its 

 surroundings, but makes no mention of the planting. 



The first example of gardening known to have been 

 made by ofiicial order, as far as can be learned, was to 

 be seen in 1869, on the line of the Central railroad of 

 New Jersey, on the stretch between Elizabeth and 

 Bound Brook. The credit for this was directly due to 

 the late president of the railroad, J. T. Johnston. That 

 gentleman was therefore one of the pioneers, if not 

 actually the first American railway official to recognize 

 the advantages, and to encourage the development of 

 such improvement of station-grounds. 



Another early example, also on the Baltimore & Ohio 

 road, is a little flower garden which has been main- 

 tained for fifteen years or more at Buckhorn Point, on 

 a narrow strip of ground between the tracks and the 

 edge of a precipitous height overlooking the valley of 

 the Cheat river. 



In 1880, the Boston & Albany Company built a new 

 station at Newtonville, Mass., and a baggage -master 

 (name unknown) who took charge at that point in 1881 



to the adoption of a system of planting which has, 

 under intelligent, artistic supervision, been radically 

 changed in style till it now stands as the nearest 

 approach to a comprehensive and consistent example 

 of railroad gardening known in this or in any other 

 country. 



Among the first railway companies to improve their 

 station-grounds by planting were the Central of New 

 Jersey (1869), the Baltimore & Ohio (date uncertain), 

 the Boston & Albany (1880), the New York Central & 

 Hudson River (1880), the Erie (1881), the Southern 

 Pacific (1885), the Pennsylvania (1886), and the Austin 

 & Northwestern of Texas (1887). 



Summary of Present Condition. — At the present time 

 one or two of the pioneer roads in this work have aban- 

 doned it, while others have greatly increased its extent 

 and improved its style, and many new ones have taken 

 it up. Prominent among the latter are the Michigan Cen- 

 tral, the Chicago & Northwestern, the Illinois Central, 

 the Delaware & Hudson, the Philadelphia & Reading, the 

 Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Chicago, Burling- 

 ton & Quincy, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa F6 with its 

 San Francisco &San Joaquin Valley line, the Cleveland, 

 Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, the Boston & Maine, the 

 Long Island, the Union Pacific, and the Northern Pacific 

 railroads, all of which have planted more or less tender 

 material, with the use of an increasing proportion of per- 

 manent planting. A number of others have reserved 

 plots for future improvement, and some have turfed 

 such spaces. Several prominent companies do no di- 

 rect planting, but seek to secure the embellishment 

 of station-grounds by offering annual prizes to certain 

 employees. This plan has proved fairly satisfactory 

 and should become far more so under a uniform, well- 

 defined system of improvement and with competent 

 supervision. 



The planting so far done consists largely of strictly 

 ornamental gardening, that is, of formal grouping, car- 

 pet-bedding, and of similar planting composed of tender 

 material, but it is encouraging to note evidences of 

 growing dissatisfaction with this ephemeral style of 

 horticultural improvement. The most brilliant and pro- 

 gressive railroad men are quick to recognize its limi- 

 tations and defects, once their attention is directed to 

 the matter, and, seeing its radically ineifectual results, 

 to look for something better. Examples of increasing 

 knowledge in this direction are seen in the action of 



