The Portland daily press., 1875-10-22
A Word tn the Wise.

| Vermont have usually no objection to turn an
honest penny; and the great Increase of sum-
mer travel and summer visiting along the sea-
| coast and among the mountains during the
| last twenty-five years, has made very well
| come addition to the income not only of the
| hotels, stages, and railroads. but of the farm
ers who trase provisions, and Of the families
| who furnish walters to the hotels, or who take
| private boarders.
In the competition which springs up for
| catching and retaining summer boarders, the
| people of these sections have relied chiefly
| upon the great features of Nature. Ore viii
| lage offers rocky seacoast, another beach
| for bathing, third majestic mountains a
| fourth a lake, and so on to the end Very few
have the good sense, like the Barrons at the
| Profile House, to make the immediate smaller
surroundings of their places also attractive
spent week this summer at Bethlehem,
N. H., in one of the excellent houses there,
and enjoyed greatly the splendid views of the
Francona and White MIS-, the Pliny Range,
and the mountains of Northern Vermont, OBJ
tanned from the village and its neghborhood.
But the village itself and its immediate sur
roundings were trial and an offence to me
requiring perpetual effort of philosophy to en-
able me to turn my mind from them to the con-
temptation of the distant landscape Not only
had nearly every tree in the neghborhood been
cut down, but the wild plants by the roadside
had been carefully grubbed out; so that the
only way to see any of the beautiful and inter-
estinr plants of the region, was to walk a mile
and half or two miles, in an August sun, to
| find them. One root of spkenard had escaped
the scythe and hoe, and it was like an oasis in
the desert. Afterward l spent week at
Gorham, N. H., where much the same error
had been committed. One Massachusetts FAM
lily had flower garden; but even they were
surprised aud pleased 70 have me bring ferns,
asters, golden rod and clematis, and plant
them in their yard among the exotics. North
Conway suffers under the same defect; the
settlers seem to have thought it necessary to
root out and destroy all tho beautiful plants
which grow wild by the roadside. Let such a
village once ad . eplan of preserving, and
even replaptil g natural hedgerows, aud it
would Immediately become more attractive
than its rivals. No country on earth can make
mOto DcduIilul lduuSCdpG budu NGW IuSlduu,
when seen over a foreground of the exquisite
flowers native to our region. In the season of
the greatest summer travel, the clemats run
ming over bushes; or near warehouses;, its
place more than supplied by mikania; with the
earlier golden rods and asters, the climbing
false buckWheat, the one-seeded cucumber
vine, the wild balsamine, the wild balsam
apple, the delciously fragrant wild bean, are all
in bloom; and might with very little labor be
made to grow by every roadside; some being
suited to dry. some to wet, some TO rich, some
to poor land. The grape vine, and the Vir-
ginia creeper are also beautiful from their lux
uriance of green.
In this city we are particularly interested in
our Portland & Ogdensburg Road. We hon.
estly believe that no railroad on this continent,
certainly none this side the Black Hills, can
show piece of equal length, to exceed in
scenic beauty the ride from North Conway to
Fabyan's. Those who had seen it only from
the stage road are astonished to find now that
they had hardly seen it at all! One of the
most distinguished landscape gardeners in this
country said to me in recent letter, II was
agreeably surprised to find how little the
scenery had been injured by its construction,
and how much has been gained in advantages
of observation. AS seen from the cars the
Notch has an entirely new grandeur and new
beauty; and the Company has done a capital
thing 10 the Introduction of class of cars
adapted to the enjoyment of it,
But the company have another capital thing
under consideration, which win render their
al Al.
by bringing the foreground into harmony with
the other parts OF marvellous pictures which
they exhibit sooner than it would be done by
unaded Nature. The sides of new cuts, and
embankments, are neither beautiful nor pictur-
esque; and it takes many years for nature to
paint the rock with lichens, and cover the soil
with plants. Where the road is cut, as behind
the Wiley house, through forest of young
trees, there is also an unpleasant hopyard effect,
which will last even longer unless prevented
by art. 1t is proposed to apply, between Be
miss and the Gate of the Notch, simple
remedy, which has been found very efieacious
elsewhere. A man with a pole saw, standing
on the entertainments will saw off every second
or third of the young trees, at one quarter to
one third of the way from the top. The trees
thus polarded, between this time and the first
of May next, will by the summer of 1877, have
improved exceedingly the beauty of the road
The tops thus cut off, will lie where they fall,
and be covered rapidly with vines; by sowing
among them seeds of the wild cucumber and
balsam apple; and planting clematis and Vir-
gnia creeper. The last named is especially
valuable in September aad October. AS soon
as the cuts and fills are brought to their proper
slope and permanent form, it is proposed to &C.
celerate the clothing of them by sowing rasp-
berries, and the seeded tops Of wild asters,
golden rods AID pearlweeds; and by the rivu-
lets, mikania. Willow herb will come IN rap
idly enough by the winds.
l believe that if the company carry out these
projected Improvements judiciously, they will
not only greatly increase the pleasure of their
passengers, but even increase their numbers
sufficiently to make the trifling expenditure a
good investment. Certainly they will have set
good example to the villages, and hotel keep
ers of the mountain region. T. II.