WAY-SIDE HINTS. 157 



alternations of temperature, and exposure of its stiff 

 ened leaves to the scalding sunbeams which some- 

 times belong even to a northern winter. Protection 

 from the January sun is, I believe, as important as 

 protection from extreme cold. 



Where the railway passes through a country prop- 

 erty upon the same general level with a lawn surface 

 or farm lands, the rules for adjustment of crops or 

 of decorative features so as to carry their best land- 

 scape effects, will be comparatively easy. All right 

 lines whether of annual crops, hedge-rows, or ave- 

 nues will, of a surety, lose effect by being established 

 parallel to the line of road. At what angle they 

 should touch upon it, will be best determined by the 

 nature of the surface, and by the conditions of the 

 background. 



I know that it is the habit of many who control 

 large estates adjoining railways, to ignore, so far as 

 possible, this iron neighbor, and to make all their 

 plans of improvement with a contemptuous disregard 

 of the travelling observers, who count by thousands, 

 considering only the few who look on from the old 

 high-road, or those, still fewer, who have the privilege 

 of the grounds. But in a republican country, this is 

 monstrous ; monstrous, indeed, in any country where 

 a man properly reckons his responsibilities to his fel- 

 lows. If he has conceived new lessons of taste, it is 



