2902 RAILROAD-GARDENING 



RAILROAD-GARDENING 



planted in parallel rows spaced 6 feet apart at right 

 angles with and 3 feet apart parallel with the track. 

 The two outer rows on each side are golden Russian 

 and laurel-leaved willows ; the third row from the outer 

 margins, box-elder and ash; and the five central rows, 

 cottonwood. This arrangement is expected to produce 

 a dense grove, increasing in height from both sides to 

 the center, which will furnish an effective windbreak." 

 The feasibility of planting for protection against the 

 encroachment of shifting sand on the seacoast, along 

 rivers, and on so-called desert lands, has been demon- 

 strated by the researches and experiments of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The advan- 

 tages of such plantings are sure to be eventually recog- 

 nized and utilized by railway companies whose lines are 

 exposed to this danger. 



The disagreeable features and their suppression 

 constitute an important phase of landscape improve- 

 ment about railway properties. There are two impor- 

 tant classes of disfigurement: defacement by signs, and 

 defacement by abused and neglected grounds adjoining 



probably be endured until mitigated by the efforts of 

 municipal art and social-service leagues. 



Protection of natural scenery is a prime considera- 

 tion. Notwithstanding the prominence given in rail- 

 way advertising to fine natural scenery, little credit 

 seems due to railway companies in general for protect- 

 ing such scenery. That they might wield a mighty 

 influence for their own and the public good is proved by 

 a few examples. It is learned that the unofficial work of 

 representatives of the New York Central and the Michi- 

 gan Central roads did much to create the public senti- 

 ment that led to the formation of government parks on 

 each side of Niagara Falls, and that the same roads 

 should be credited with comprehensive and extended 

 efforts to secure legislation looking to the prevention of 

 further defacement of the palisades of the Hudson. 

 Many of the movements for protecting natural views 

 and worthy objects have close relation with the 

 improvement of railway properties. 



3337. Plans of railroad-gardening. On the left, Auburndale Station, Boston & Albany Railroad. The plan provides for a porte- 

 cochere, driveways, steps to an overhead bridge and to an underground passage. On the right, Chestnut Hill Station, Massachusetts. 

 Both reproduced from "Garden and Forest." 



railway rights-of-way. The more noticeable of these is 

 the display of hideous sign-boards that disfigure rail- 

 way rights of way and, indeed, seem to have the right 

 of way on highways of every description. These 

 amount to a public nuisance that should be legally 

 controlled, but as they are placed on adjacent land or 

 buildings instead of on railway property, their direct 

 suppression by railway officials is out of the question. 

 These eyesores, however, furnish an added and cogent 

 reason for massing plantations of small trees, shrubs, 

 and vines at certain points along rights-of-way where 

 the topography of adjacent land invites such dis- 

 figurement. These gaudy signs not only blot out or 

 mar most fine landscape views (being adroitly placed to 

 that direct end), but are allowed to distort otherwise 

 unobjectionable farm buildings, while the approach to 

 villages and towns is announced in screaming colors by 

 the crowding together of these frightful adjuncts of 

 civilization. While railway companies are not strictly 

 responsible for these conditions, it is certain that they 

 might sway public opinion and effect a much-needed 

 reform by continuous, systematic work in the way of 

 "planting out" the disfigurements, and by establishing 

 attractive plantations wherever possible. This policy 

 is likely to result in a reformation in the direction of the 

 second source of unpleasant views from trains; viz., the 

 unkempt, sordid, and often wretchedly squalid appear- 

 ance of grounds adjoining rights-of-way through vil- 

 lages, towns, and small cities. If a park is maintained 

 on the station grounds, nearby residents are likely to 

 catch the good spirit and improve the looks of neigh- 

 boring back yards. To this end, a rule against dumping 

 on railway ground should be strictly enforced. The 

 objectionable features that obtain in large cities must 



Planting for economic purposes is among the possibili- 

 ties along rights of way, for the purpose of producing 

 timber for furnishing cross-ties, poles, and posts. It is 

 asserted that, under competent supervision, this branch 

 can be made not only to pay the entire expenses of the 

 department but to become a source of revenue. This 

 branch of the work appeals to practical railway men 

 as perhaps no other phase can be expected to, and to 

 what extent the fortunes of various groves of locust, 

 catalpa, and tamarack influence the point of view of 

 chief engineers it would be difficult to learn, but that 

 numbers of them are turning otherwise unoccupied 

 railways lands to this use is certain. In Indiana, for 

 example, some railway companies have planted a part 

 of their holdings with trees for the double purpose of 

 growing timber for economic uses and to secure the 

 resulting reduction in taxes, which is a feature of the 

 state forestry law. 



It is often asked whether the planting or horticultural 

 department of a railroad can be made partly self-sup- 

 porting. There seems little doubt that by one means or 

 another this department might be made at least partly 

 self-sustaining, but the consensus of opinion among 

 railroad men is distinctly against the advisability of 

 making it so, except indirectly. It is conceivable that 

 railroad nurseries and greenhouses might supply plant- 

 ing stock to individuals to their advantage; and pos- 

 sibly railway rights-of-way aggregating immense areas 

 might be planted to crops, perhaps to fruit-trees as is 

 done to some extent in European countries (a project 

 which has also been recently suggested for the roads of 

 India), but the opinion is general that legitimate rail- 

 road business is limited to the transportation of people 

 and of freight. Even if this is true, it is still certain that 



