PARK AND CEMETERY 
139 
Treatment of Railway Gronnds in the Black Forest of Germany, where the business men are 
banded into a great improvement association for the express purpose of 
making the region attractive to tourists. 
asserting that the first cost of a 
proposed work is 
with them practically always secondary in importance 
to the cost of its maintenance. They not only build 
for time, but also for eternity, — as nearly as may be in 
a perishing world. The only reason they are, as a 
whole, behind in the artistic side of planting is because 
they have heretofore dealt exclusively 'with sternly 
practical affairs and have not had time to consider the 
subject of outdoor art as applied to railroads. But 
they have it to do. They will learn to put their plant- 
ing into competent hands, just as they now put their 
track laying, bridge building, etc., into competent 
hands. 
Improvement societies must look to it that they do 
not follow the grooved rail of custom in their railway 
planting. They must get away from the ephemeral, 
formal and purely ornamental or decorative garden- 
ing heretofore most prominent around railway sta- 
tions and learn to produce permanent landscape effects 
that are attractive the whole year 
through. They should develop rail- 
way grounds along the lines of 
landscape art. making each one a 
picture. 
ject lesson in outdoor art for the 
education of thousands. It comes 
so near being what it should be that 
one experiences real disappointment 
in noting its deficiencies. The plant- 
ing, as far as it goes, is good, the 
hedge is a wall of living green, no 
doubt the turf is as fine as can be 
secured, and no leaf, twig or rub- 
bish mars the exquisite neatness of 
the place. But note the artificial 
terraces where a graceful, natural 
sweep would better serve the pur- 
pose and be far easier to keep in or- 
der; the barren building, guiltless 
of vine or shrub to tie it to its 
charming sight — it looks as ready 
to move on as any freight car wait- 
ing on a siding ; and note, especial- 
ly, the shrubs, all standing like 
women at a muddy crossing, skirts 
lifted and feet exposed! If only 
the outer and more prominent bushes were allowed to 
drop their graceful trains, how much more finished 
the picture would be. The care-taker is evidently so 
in love with his lawn, or (which is more probable) so 
in love with an uninterrupted progress for his lawn- 
mower, that he forces the pretty things to assume the 
absurd position of standing all their lives at the ford 
ready to cross but never getting over. He also re- 
duces them to the dead level of monotony by mak- 
ing them look as nearly alike as possible when he 
ruthlessly shears off their characters. They are a 
sorrv spectacle and greatly need the intervention of 
the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Plants. How 
much better they would look and how much easier it 
would be to cultivate and care for them, as well as 
for the lawn, if beds were made for each group of 
shrubs, — the sod being entirely removed and the 
ground between and for two or more feet outside of 
them occupied by suitable hardy perennials. 
Frances Copley Seayey. 
r -r® 
0 ? & 
Look at the accompanying illus- 
tration ( No. i ) and estimate the 
money expended on the substantia! 
and handsome station and its partly 
planted and beautifully kept 
grounds ; then hasten to realize that 
the same money would suffice to 
make the building and its inclosure 
a perfect and entirely admirable ob- 
Plan of Station Grounds, Auburndale, Mass. — Boston & Albany R. R.— Considered 
ideal in arrangement and display. 
