Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-03-20
George Vanderbiilt's Estate.

The Interesting Experiments which He
Is Carrying On---Employs More
Hands Than the Department of Agri-
culture.
All the world has heard about the splen-
did estate of George Vanderbilt at Ashe-
vile, n. c., and most of us have supposed
that BiltmOTe was simplya rich mans fad
Not so. Secretary of Agriculture Morton
has been spending a week seeing what Mr..
Vanderbilt has to show and on his return
to Washington on Saturday he told his
colleagues at the cabinet meeting that
there is nothing in the world, owned by
sovereign or subject, that will COM
pare with Biltmore, either as a residence
or as an object lesson IN the agricultural
arts.
at is grand idea," said Mr.. Morton,
"that young Mr.. Vanderbilt is trying to
carry out. 1t is unique, and none but
man of his enormous wealth could under
take IL. Few kings have either the funds
or the good of their people at heart suffi-
cient TO conceive and carry out what Mr..
Vanderbilt has successfully demonstrated.
| do not know how much money he has
spent there, nor how much more he in
tends TO invest, but it is one of the grand
ever attempted, and understand that it is
the owners intention to leave it as a lega-
cy to the public when he can no longer en-
joy it himself.
There are 5000 acres in the estate,
and every inch of it may be said to be un-
der scientific cultivation, embracing every
branch of the vegetable kingdom. Com
bined with it he has the most perfect sys-
TEN of roadways | have ever seen, and you
can drive 100 miles over macadamized
pavement without going off his estate.
AS an exhibition of landscape gardening
it is without an equal. Frederick Law
Olmsted has had charge of that branch of
the work, and the late Richard NJ. Hunt
was the architect of all the buildings,
which, for their several uses, surpass any
that exist on earth. There are no palaces
in Europe that can equal Mr. Vanderbilts
for elegance, comfort and convenience, and
he is gathering there a collection of works
of art that would make it famous if it had
no other attraction. His stables his barns,
his dairies, his propagating houses, his
henneries, and other features of his estab-
lishment are all on the same grand scale.
He has undertaken to furnish the highest
possible example of the science of food
| culture in every one of its branches. He
take charge of his experiments, and pays
them salaries that are commensurate with
their services. There are Germans and
Frenchmen and Italians and Engishmen,
as well as Americans, employed. The for
eigners are usually men of high profession
al regulations, who are attached to univer-
sites in the old world, and spend their va
| cations, three, four or six months, on Mr..
anderblts estate looking after their re-
| spective departments. While the work
has not yet been carried far enough to
show the results, the possibilities of useful
ness offered by Mr.. Vanderbilt's enterprise
are unlimited.
81 consider his work there Just as i'm
| portant to the agricultural interests of this
country as the department of agriculture
at Washington. He employs more men
than have under my charge, and think
he is spending more money every year
than Congress appropriates for this depart
ment, although do not know his figures.
He has nearly 1000 on his payroll, and we
have about 700. His men are promoted
for efficiency, according to the most practi-
cal civil service rules. If man who is
employed at dollar day to shovel dirt
shows that he is capable of something bet
ter, his work and his wages are both ad-
vanced, and the same rule applies to every
body on the estate. If there were nothing
else to be accomplished, Mr. Vanderbilt is,
at least, building up an educational institu-
tion that will furnish scientific farmers and
teachers for the rest of mankind, and 1
feel like thanking old Commodore Wander
bilt for having given us a grandson who
has the brains and the benevolence to de-
vote his wealth to afford the public such
valuable object lessons in art, architecture,
agriculture, forestry, viticulture dairying,
road making and other useful sciences.