PAILROAD GARDENING 



tree, and is well suited for making sliady alleys"; and 

 that India rubber trees are used at smaller 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 1809 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 



RAILROAD GARDENING 



1491 



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 solicited 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 ofiicials of the road, and led to the establish- 

 ment of similar gardens at other points, and eventually 



Plans of Railroad Gardening. 



On the left, Aubumdale Station. Boston & Albany K. R. The plan provides for a porte coch< 

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



On the right, Chestnut HiU 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, not.ably the Mexican Cen- 

 tral, maintain flower gardens and parks at larger stations. 



Railroad Ganh-nituj in tlir I'nil,,! .sv./^.s. — The first 

 traceable indications of tlie appruaoli 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 rapidlv that 

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

 Mar. 13, 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." 



Lead inn Spirits.— As nearly as can be determined 

 with certainty, the first railroad garden made in this 

 country oecupieil 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 offl.-ial order, as far as can be learned, was to 

 be seen in lSi;i1, mh tl,,. line of the Central railroad of 

 New .T.i~. y. ..;i 111. vtretch between Elizabeth and 



Bound I'.riMk. Ti r.dit for this was directly due to 



the lati/ pn.^i.l.iit .if iln- railroad, J. T. Johnston. That 

 jre one of the pioneers," if not 

 lean railway official to recognize 

 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 



gentleman was thin 

 actually the first Anie 

 the advantages, and 



to tin- adojitiMii of a system of planting which has, 

 uiid. r inic lli-i nr. artistic supervision, been radically 

 cliaii_'. il 111 -I.I.- till it now stands as the nearest 

 apimiurli u, a coniprehensive 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 

 .Tor-.- 'l^iiO', thf Baltimore & Ohio (date uncertain), 

 til.- I: - - - A. \n„i,iv (1880), the New York Central & 

 llu i- !>M)), the Erie (1881), the Southern 



]':i I- I ■ I'l-nnsylvania (1886), and the Austin 



Hi N-.i-li-.M -t, ,-i, .,f Texas (1887). 



fSnininiirif nf 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 amongthe latter are the I\lichigan Cen- 

 tral, the Chicago & Northwestern, the Illinois Central, 

 the Delaware* Hudson, the Philadelphia & Re.ading. the 

 Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Chicago, Burling- 

 ton & Quincy, the Atchison, Topeka & S.anta Fe 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 Ijrilliant and pro- 

 gressive railroad men are quick to recognize its limi- 

 tations and defects, once their attention is directed to 

 the matter, ami, seeing its radically ineifeetual results, 

 to look for something better. Examples of increasing 

 knowledge in this direction are seen in the action of 



