The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-04-08
A Farm Fit for O King.

ing from Biltmore, N. c., where he
has been spending a week or so in
vestigating the famous estate of George
Vanderbilt, and he told his colleagues
at the Cabinet meeting to-day that
there was nothing in the world owned
by sovereign or subject that will COM
| pare with it either as a residence or
an object lesson in the agricultural
arts.
ut is the grandest idea,' said MIR.
Morton to-day, "that young MIR. Van
derbilt is trying to carry out. 1t is
unique, and none but a man of his
enormous wealth could undertake it.
Few kings have either funds or the
good of their people at heart sufficient
to conceive and carry out what Mr..
Vanderbilt has successfully demon
strated. I do not know how much
money he has spent there, nor how
much more he intends to invest, but
it is one of the grandest undertakings
that individual enterprise ever at
tempted, and ! understand that it is
the owners intention to leave it as a
legacy to the public when he can no
longer enjoy it himself.
"There are $1,000 acres in the
estate, and every inch of it may be
Z! said to be under scientific cultivation,
embracing every branch of the vege-
table kingdom. Combined with this
he has the most perfect system Of
roadways I have ever seen, and you
can drive 100 miles over macadamized
pavement without going off his estate.
As an exhibition of landscape garden
ing it is without equal. Fred Law
Olmstead has had charge of that branch
of the work, and the late Mr.. Hunt
was the architect of all the buildings,
which for their several uses surpass
any that exist on earth. There is no
palace in Europe that can equal Mr..
Vanderbilt's villa for elegance, com
fort and convenience, and he is gather
ing there a collection of works of art
that would make it famous if it had
no other attraction. His stables, his
barns, his diaries, his p%ropagating
houses, his memories and other fea-
| lures of his establishment are all on
the same grand scale. He has under
taken to furnish the highest possible
example of the science of food culture
in every oneof it's branches. He has
employed the best men he a find to
take charge of his experiments and
pays them salaries that are common
surate with their services. There are
Germans and Frenchmen, Italians and
Englishmen, as we'll as Americans
employed. The foreigners are usually
men of high professional regulations
who are attached to universities in the
old world and spend their vacations,
three, four or six months, on Mr..
Vanderbilt's estate looking after their
respective departments. While the
work has not yet been carried far
enough to show results. the %possibili-
ties of it's usefulness offered by Mr..
Vanderbilt enterprise are unlimited.
81 consider his work there just as
important to the agricultural interests
of this country as the department of
agriculture at Washington. He en-
ploys more men than I have under my
charge, and I think he is spending
more money every year than Congress,
appropriates for this department, al
though I do not know his figures. He
has nearly a thousand m on his
pay roll and we have about 700. His
men are promoted for efficiency ac-
cording to the most practical civil
service rules. If a mar who is en-
ployed at a dollar a day to shovel dirt
shows that he is capable of something
better his work and his wages are both
advanced, and the same rule applies
to everybody on the estate.
Eff there were nothing else to be
accomplished, Mr.. Vanderbilt is at
least building up an educational in
stitution hat will furnish scientific
farmers and teachers for the instruc-
ton of the rest of mankind, and [ feel
like thanking old Commodore Van
derbilt for having given US a grandson
who has the brains and the benevolence
to devote his wealth to afford the pub
lie such valuable object lessons in art,
architecture, agriculture, forestry,
viniculture, dairyiDg, roadmaking and
other useful sciences.
"The people down there talk about
the enormous amount of money that
Mr.. Vanderbilt is investing to crafty
his taste and pride, to provide luxuries
for his appetite and magnificent dis
plays to Aatter his vanity, but the
poor creatures do not comprehend the
first letter in the alphabet Of his
ambition. Their vision is not sufi-
cient to grasp a single fragment Of the
idea he is developing, and while they
imagine that it is all due to s%el6shness
he is a great benefactor working for
them. They talk about the land be-
ing worn out down there in North
Carolina. It's the people. The land
is all right if brains and enegy we're
applied to it's cultivation. Chicago
PocorT