42 



The Florists' Review 



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AUGDST 16, 1912. 



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GARDENING | 



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WOBE ON THE BEADINQ. 



Few of the people who whizz by the 

 railroad stations in lightning expresses 

 know the skill and labor that is re- 

 quired to produce that little patch of 

 color on which their eyes rest so pleas- 

 antly. Few of those who wait at way- 

 side or terminal stations for their 

 trains give more than a passing thought 

 to the handsome beds that brighten the 

 neighborhood of the platforms like an 

 oasis in a desert — of rails. The fact 

 stands unchallenged, however, that peo- 

 ple do enjoy these little gardens; they 

 want them and they feel more kindly 

 toward the railroad company for pro- 

 viding them. The railroad men know 

 that gardens help to popularize their 

 stations. They provide them from a 

 purely business standpoint; the more 

 profitable the station, the more atten- 

 tion is paid to its hedges, its grass and 

 its flowers. 



With this thought in mind an inter- 

 view was secured with Paul Huebner, 

 gardener for the Beading Railroad Co., 

 at his headquarters at Wayne Junction, 

 Philadelphia. Mr. Huebner is a past 

 master in the art of railroad gardening 

 and his ideas are of unusual interest. 

 He has three greenhouses, probably 23 

 z 100 each, under his care; to these may 

 be added a number of coldframes. From 

 these three greenhouses and the frames 

 he annually brings out 150,000 bedding 

 plants, which are distributed over 

 something like 120 stations lying be- 

 tween Williamsport on the west and 

 Cape May on the east. Bethlehem, 

 Boundbrook and Beading are all within 

 his bailiwick. To furnish these plants 

 and plant these station beds, Mr. Hueb- 

 ner has exactly three men at his com- 

 mand; iust three — one, two, three; with 

 these three men he plants these plants 

 in their beds in five weeks or less, be- 

 ginning as early as the season will per- 

 mit and ending by June 12. Suppose 

 that you had to set out 150,000 plants 

 in large and small lots, stretching over 

 miles of space, do you suppose you 

 could do it easily in five weeks? 



Mr. Huebner accomplishes this re- 

 sult by system. He lays out his beds 

 beforehand with great care, allotting to 

 each just the number of beds that they 

 require; he then plans the campaign 

 for each day in advance, so that his 

 men know what train to take, how 

 many minutes they have to plant, where 

 to go next, and so on. To avoid eflrors, 

 each bed has a separate page in his 

 account book in duplicate, thus: "Cape 

 May, 1 Dracaena terminalis, 60 Gera- 

 nium John Doyle, 60 Geranium Mme. 

 Salleroi." The men know that the 

 plants start from the center of the bed, 

 so that this means that the dracaena is 

 surrounded with scarlet geraniums and 

 edged with variegated geraniums. They 

 know that the duplicate slip they hold 

 insures accuracy and safeguards them 

 against loss. Mr. Huebner modestly 

 lays little stress on the all-important 



point of generalship, a quality he must 

 possess in no mean degree. He says, 

 however, that to get through the plant- 

 ing season on time it is necessary for 

 the men not to mind a soaking now and 

 then, because the beds must be pushed 

 through regardless of weather. 



Mr. Huebner sketched the year's 

 work briefly as follows: "We are aw- 

 fully busy, of course, during the plant- 

 ing season, ^hen the beds first planted 

 must be gone over, the coleus trimmed, 

 the cannas and geraniums kept in 

 shape, and so on. Then we have the 

 painting in greenhouses for wet days, 

 while on clear days there is the shrub- 

 bery and the hedges. Our cuttings 

 must be put in in September, to be fol- 

 lowed by the lifting of the plants. There 

 is plenty of work in the greenhouse 

 during the winter and on the snow- 

 breaks outside, and before we know it 

 spring is here again, with its tremen- 

 dous rush." 



Mr. Huebner depends on standard va- 

 rieties of geraniums, coleus, cannas and 

 alternantheras, some flowering plants, 

 such as petunias, and on shrubbery. 

 Most of his beds are planted for effect, 

 but there are half a dozen carpet bed 

 designs in which he takes great pride. 

 The varieties of plants are. chosen for 

 their effectiveness at a distance and for 

 their ability tp stand tlie trying rail- 

 road conditions. Anyone who wishes 

 to judge of Mr. Huebner 's success in 

 his work may do so by looking at any 



of the stations within the radius de- 

 scribed, and noting how well the flower 

 l»eds are planned and executed. Phil. 



RAILWAY aABDENEBB MEET. 



The sixth annual meeting of the Bail- 

 way Gardening Association was held 

 Tuesday, August 13, at Boanoke, Va. 

 President Patrick Foy was in the chair. 

 The program was as follows: 



TUESDAY, AUGUST 13. 



Address of Welcome, P. H. LaBaume, A. & I. 

 A., N. & W. iiy. Co. 



Report of officers. 



"Good Fellowship and How Best It Can be 

 Maintained," by Geo. B. Moulder, Illinois Cen- 

 tral R. R. 



"Insect Pests on Trees and Shru'bs and Remedy 

 for Same," by E. F. A. Reinsch, Santa Fe K. R. 



"Are Lire Snow Brakes More Economical than 

 Lumber and What Should Tbey be Composed 

 of?" by J. B. Smith, Pennsylvania R. R. 



"Which Gives the Best Results; the Theoret- 

 ical or Practical Railway Gardener?" by J. E. 

 Byrne, Baltimore & Ohio R. K. 



"Should Railways Establish a Landscape De- 

 partment?" by N. S. Dunlop, Canadian Pacific 

 R. R. 



"The Propagation by Seed and Cuttings of 

 Nursery Stock," by John Gipner, Michigan Cen- 

 tral E. R. 



"How Do Railway Gardeners Compare Men- 

 tally, Physically and Morally With Men of 

 Other Professions?" by E. A. Richardson, Bal- 

 timore & Ohio R. R. 



"What Relationship Should Exist Between 

 the Agricultural and Industrial Department of 

 Railways and the R. R. Landscape Gardener?" 

 by Dr. B. A. Schubert, Norfolk & Western Ry. 



"Duties of a Railway Gardener," by O. H. 

 Tritschler, N. C. & St. Louis R. R. 



"To What Extent Can Aquatic or Water Gar- 

 dening be Carried on by the Railway Gardener?" 

 by v. Wlckles, Illinois Central R. B. 



"The Construction and Maintenance of Drive- 

 ways Approaching Railway Stations," by C. J. 

 Andrews, Pennsylvania R. R. 



"The Best Trees for Railway Parks," by J. 

 K. Wlngert, Cumberland Valley E. E. 



Open discussion on all subjects. 



Selection of next meeting place and date. 



Blection of officers. 



Miscellaneons. 



Adjournment. 



WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14. 



Auto trip over principal streets of Roanoke. 

 Reception by Mr. and Mrs. Churchill. 

 Trip to Mill Mountain over Incline R. R. 

 Lunch at Rockledge Inn. 

 Trip to Mountain Park Amusements. 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 16. 

 Sight-seeing trip over Shenandoah Valley Di- 

 vision, Norfolk & Western Railway, stopping 

 over at Natural Bridge and the Caverns of 

 Lnray. 



SAVE SACKS AND SAVE DIMES. 



S. A. Jamieson calls attention that by 

 florists along with others a lot of good 

 money is wasted every year through 

 the practice of using cement sacks to 

 cover concrete. The sacks are fre- 

 quently sprinkled with a hose in order 

 to keep them moist and prevent the 

 concrete from drying out. Sometimes, 

 in freezing weather, concrete is covered 

 with sacks upon which manure is piled 

 in order to keep the concrete from 

 freezing. The result is that the sacks 

 are destroyed. Such treatment, acting 

 in conjunction with the cement dust 

 with which the pores of the cloth are 

 filled, causes them to rot, so that they 

 are no longer strong enough to make a 

 proper package for cement. A rotten 

 sack is worth much less than a torn 

 sack, because a sack which is only torn 

 can be mended, whereas nothing will 

 bring life and strength back to decayed 

 cloth. 

 A recent bulletin of the Universal 



Portland Cement Co. said: "The area 

 of a cement sack spread out flat is 

 about three and one-quarter square feet, 

 so that the cost of covering concrete 

 with 10-cent cement sacks is at least 

 3 cents a square foot. The price of 

 tarpaulins ranges from 3% cents to 

 9% cents per square foot and a good, 

 waterproof tarpaulin may be purchased 

 for 6 cents per square foot. Therefore, 

 if such a tarpaulin is bought and used 

 twice, it has paid for itself as compared 

 with the use of cement sacks for the 

 same purpose; and there still remains 

 a tarpaulin in first-rate physical condi- 

 tion, capable of being used many more 

 times as against the pile of rotten 

 sacks which is all that is left after 

 they have been misused in this way." 

 Wouldn't it be a good investment to 

 lay in a few tarpaulins, which may be 

 used for other purposes besides cover- 

 ing concrete, and which will last and 

 do good service for an indefinite length 

 of time, rather than to waste 10-cent 

 cement sacks by putting them to a use 



