The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-02
SCIENTIFIC FORESTRY
vanderbilt's Noteworthy object Les
son at Biltmore--4, 900 Acres of
Trees Cultivated with Valuable Re

son at Biltmore-4, 900 Acres OF
Trees Cultivated with Valuable Re
suits.
In an article on the Biltmore estate
I'm Ainslee's magazine for May, Philip
Poindexter describes interestingly Mr..
Vanderbilt's lesson in scientific forest
culture.
I'VE have been criminally wasteful
i'm our treatment of the forests in
America. Our rgreat-grandfathers looked
upon the forest as the great en-
emy of man. and so vast areas were
destroyed to get arabic land, and the
wood wantonly burned to get 1t out OF
the way. Later, the lumber and the tam
ming interests have been just as wan
ton In their destruction, and now the
paper makers are destroying in most
wholesale fashion. As matter of
fact, all the good that has come from
this forest destruction might have been
achieved, and a very much larger area
of woodland preserved. But we have
been a 'slap-dash people, with dispo-
sition to hustle rapidly to whatever
end in view We are suffering now by
reason of previous improvidence, and
ent recklessness. 1t is true the gov
ernment has taken up the SUBJECT,
through the department of agriculture,
and several of the states have taken
action to preserve some public forests
Mr.. Vanderbilt is the first private
owner to take up this matter of scien-
tfic forest administration on large
scale. Scientific administration does
10 in mir
plate the non-use of the trees, but the
rational use, so that the forests Will
not go out of existence, but, on the
contrary, so that new growths will al
ways be maturing to take the place
of the old Such administration also
contemplates that the forests should
always be source of income, and not
one of outlay, more income, indeed,
than would be obtained by cutting
down all the trees and marketing the
various kinds of wood. 1t was such
administration that Mr. Vanderbilt
wished to inaugurate when he asked
Mr.. Clifford Pinchot to make a survey
of the Biltmore forests and develop a
plan of management
ALL SORTS OF TREES.
~
button of the flora of Eastern North
America the supply of native trees at
Biltmore is naturally large and varied.
Deciduous trees are in the majority.
and the white oak is the most COM
mon. Then follow in the order of fire.
quency in the forest the black oak
scarlet oak. and Spanish oak. There
are also a few specimens of other men,
bers of the family, like the chestnut OF
the red, water and shingle varieties
But more numerous than these infrc-
quent members of the family save tho
chestnut oak, are the short-leaf pine
chestnut, hickory, black gum, maple
and tulip tree, the latter sometimes
called the yellow poplar. The black
locust and the sassafras have increased
of late years, while the black walnu,
has about died out as a forest tree.
I'm addition to those mentioned, there
are distributed in various Earts of the
estate, all of them being of natura
growth, this list of trees: Cucumber
papaw, Eastwood and white Eastwood
holly, sweet buckeye, sugar maple
black maple, soft maple. red maple, bo>
elder staghorn sumac and poisor
sumac, both the black and honey
locust, wild plum. wild cherry of bott
the black and red varieties. crab apple
haw. scarlet haw and summer haw
shadbush, witch hazel, Towering dog
wood, stagbush. sourwOod laurel anC
great laurel or rhododendron, persim
mon, rattlebox, white ash, fringe tree
red elm, blackberry red mulberry
sycamore, hickories of the bigbud
shellbark. pgnut and bitternut vari
cites, chincapin. beech hornbeam OF
ironwood, both river and black birch
black alder. black willow, poplar, bal
sem, cottonwood, red cedar, hemlocl
and pines of the white pitch, scrub
table mountain and short-leaf Vari
eties.
Not all of these have a mercantil.
value, and before the estate was pur
chased by Mr.. Vanderbilt they were
allowed to grow indiscriminately anC
in the most promiscuous fashion b,
the number of small farmers whC
owned the properties of which the es
tate is made up. That so many vari
cites of trees and shrubs will thus grow
naturally is of advantage in view o.
the fact that Mr.. Vanderbilt is estab
fishing here one of the most complet,
arboretums in the world
VALUABLE RESULTS.
The forest comprises a little owe
one-half of the estate, which stretches
along the banks of the French Broa,
for about six miles. In ALL there ar
3,S9l acres of woodland. The fores
is very irregular, as a result of tn,
clearing operation of the many pre-
Vious owners all of whom had thei
own necessities and their own idea
of how land should be cleared TIL,
axe has in some parts entirely denudeC
the land of trees, and fire has served
similar purpose in other portions
DensitY of growth. therefore varie