The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-23
Railway Stations in England.

| 0OtIU1OIS
From "English and American Railways" in
Harper'sfor August.
In the management of stations the
English and American termini are
about on a par, but their minor and
country station are incomparably
better managed than ours. The bar
and refreshment counter is promi-
nent feature of every station of note
and has been wrought to'a degree OF
Importance that is wholly unknown
under similar conditions in America.
1t is a great convenience to travellers,
and conduces to much drinking, and
to eating that is of character quite
as favorable to dyspepsia as anything
known in America.
The country stations look for the
most part like comfortable homes of
favored and stalwart tstation-masters
There is generally some space about
them that can be used as a garden,
and this, however small, is frequently
kept gay with flowers. Two of the
great companies offer rewards for the
best-kept stations and signal-boxes,
and on these lines fowery stations are
naturally most common, but on the
other lines you may often see attempts
to get rid of the inherent hideousness
| that clings to Il railway. The usual
garden is a narrow strip between the
platform for passengers and the in
| closing railing 1t is enacted by Par
lament that no post, rail or other OBJ
stacle shall come nearer than six feet
from the edge of the platform, and this
makes it necessary to inclose quite a
wide space. Between the six feet of
platform and the fence is the
station-master's garden. The flowers
that he grows differ according to
the soil of the district. In a
rich clay be will have standard rose
trees as the principal feature; in a
warm, light soil his strong point may
be the chrysanthemums tied back
against the palings. But as his object
is to have plenty of color all the year
round, you will generally find that the
main part of the border is filled with
fresh plants in each season, such as
the gardener uses for his spring and
summer beds. In the spring there are
double daises, red and white, that
blossom from February till June, blue
forgen-me-nots (Myosotis dtssitifora)
that keeps gay almost as long, pan
sizes, wall-fowers and the yellow alys-
sum and white iberis-hardy crucifer-
Gus plants that grow in big clumps
against the edging Of tile or ornamen-
tai stone, breaking the stiffness of the
line, and bringing a mass of flowers in
early spring. In May or early June,
when all danger of frost is over, he
will plant geraniums, calceolarias To-
belias and such like tender peren-
mails, and his sweet peas, convol-
vuli, nemophila, and other ANIMALS
will come into blossom. But the gay
est time of all is in late summer and
early autumn, for then his garden is
full of dahlias, nasturtiums trained up
the fence, China asters, marigolds
(French and African), phloxes, and all
the gaudy flowers that come into bios
som after the kindly influence of few
warm months. These and many 9th
er plants are to be found in most OF
the gardens; but as all gardening that
is done lovingly shows individuality,
you will notice as you travel that each
station has some particular flower by
which you can remember 1.-THE roses
at Halton Junction, the dahlias at
MiIcote. There has been nothingmore
welcome in American railroad manage
ment than the imitation of our Eng
lish brethren in their treatment of
their stations, and nothingis regarded
with more lively or sympathetic in
terest than the horticultural ambitions
and struggles of the station-masters ON
some of our leading lines.