356 Trees for Railroads. 



tendant of heat and sunshine. They too, by their power of ab- 

 sorption, would attract moisture from the atmosphere by their 

 heads, and from the earth from their roots, thus keeping up a due 

 degree of moisture, except in the very driest times ; the effect of 

 which would be to prevent the dust from accumulating at the 

 surface. 



Then again, trees planted by the sides of railroads would give 

 new interest to the country through which they pass. It is a 

 common remark of travellers, that they usually pass through the 

 least interesting sections of the districts along their route. This 

 is necessarily the case in hilly and mountainous regions, in order 

 to secure a suitable grade. Hence they pass along low lauds, and 

 in many cases over swamps, most forbidding in their natural feat- 

 ures. In higher regions they often pass through deep cuts which 

 entirely cut off the prospect, which otherwise, for a moment, 

 greets the eye. These cuts meet the vision as so many grand 

 deformities, with their ragged sides worn and gullied by every 

 storm. Now, if these lowlands were belted with trees to inhale 

 the miasma which arises from them, and exclude from the eye the 

 unsightly bogs and morasses which line the way — if the embank- 

 ments presented a slope of verdure seen in beautiful trees rising 

 higher and higher, what a new and beautiful feature these high- 

 ways for the million would present to attract the attention, feast 

 the eyes and gladden the hearts of all passers-by who have taste 

 enough to appreciate anything so grand and beautiful in nature. 

 It is a common remark, that " the cars go so fast you can't see 

 anything." I believe no such thing, for we never, in our own ex- 

 perience, rode so fast in them but the difference between an oak 

 or a maple — a pine or a hemlock — a ledge of limestone or of slate 

 — of clay or gravel, or the different stratifications of sand, were 

 noticeable. Then what a beautiful succession of trees would be 

 brought before the eye in travelling from the Atlantic to the Mis- 

 sissippi, or from Canada to the Gulf, or the South, by the array 

 of trees and shrubs of every intervening district spread along in 

 beautiful relief by the way side ; and then the opening of vegeta- 

 tion in spring, and the decay of autumn, would mark the differ- 

 ence of season in a way which he could not fail to admire, and 

 from which we would gather lessons of instruction. 



