The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-14

Trail and road are always kept In
readiness against Mr. Vanderbilt's
coming. He is, as the rangers say,
.,liable to come any time" There
are miles of shooting paths, the lat
| fer Is feet in width and but out right
and left from the roads. When deer
are driven they must o these
paths, and by means OF the latter
alone can the hunter see them IN
time to get a shot.
For a century these Pink Beds
were a free pasture, and thousands
of cattle were driven there for the
grazing. The cattle we're driven
even from South Carolina, in the
the spring and fall were driven home
s'seal fat as the phase is. In those
DAYS forest fires were set alight each
spring, to freshen the grass. Eight
years g Mr.. Vanderbilt began to
buy the land, and now cattle found
within his boundaries are driven
| out by the rangers.
The absence of noises other than
those made by the streams is One of
the most noticed things. Rarely is
a note of a bird heard, and schooner
still is any feathered thing e So
perfect and so dense is the cover that
a deer can lie unseen only a few feet
away. Numerous as the turkeys are,
only one was flushed, and only a
very few pheasants yer seen. The
sharp foot.marks of the deer r
constantly visible in the trails, and
alongside the streams Ire the foot
prints of the wildcat. High over
head the golden eagle is een sOar-
ing, ond Ranger Kearns shows a
mounted specimen which he killed
with a revolver as it sat in a tree
top so yards away.
Though Mr.. Vanderbilt is not a
sportsman, but a student, yet, as
Stated, all things are kept ready for
him. His pleasure is the pleasure
of others. On his last visit he only
caught n trout, MOI did he fire a
gun. His wife was with him. She
is a good horsewoman and rode a
pony up and down the steepest trails.
Under protection native trout are
rapidly restocking the streams with
out artificial propagation.
NIL -o,J oLSoo4;-o oo:-E &c ALo Ill
grimage is Pisgah Peak. The Thomp-
son trail is taken for it's top, and it is
a long nine-mile tramp. This is the
steepest because the most direct of
all the trails. The immense trees of
the Pink Beds are replaced on the
long mountain crest by dwarfed,
trees, very quaint in effect, with
blue grass beneath them. It is a
natural park in miniature. The
trail leads along the crest of Pisgah
Lodge. This is. a masterpiece of
quaintness, all of logs and stone.
It's front balcony projects over a
chasm almost sheer for 1000 feet.
From this most picturesque stand
point Mr.. Vanderbilt's guests shoot
clay pigeons or glass balls, and ex-
perts get three or four shots. The
furniture is all of mountain woods.
The dining hall is a separate build
ing, of the same log construction,
and it's walls are nearly covered with
the dressed skins of the wildcat,
fox, deer, skunk, etc. There are
more than 200 skins, those of the
wildcat predOminating. These ami.
mails were all shot or trapped in
Pisgah forest. There are also i'm
mense eagles perched on the beams.
The pilgrims dine at the lodge amid
these odd surroundings on fried
chicken, thin pOne cOrnbread, but
termilk and the pellucid honey which
the bees make from the flowers of
the sOurwOOd trees, which are so
numerous in the forest, and indeed
all through the mountain region.
1t is two miles from the lodge to
the summit of Pisgah. All the wav
there is a view which embraces scores
of miles. There is a trail to the ton.
which is a very accurately shaDed
cone. On it there is barely room for
four ponies and "a half a dozen peo-
pie on foot. 1t is $500 feet above
sea level, and so vast is it's height
that it seems to the pilgrims that
they + on top of a tower. To the
eastward is Biltmore House, hanging
in the middle distance like Aladdin's
palace, snowy white and vast, and
quite near 1t is the tree-embow1ed
Asheville, twelve miles away. Four
counties corner on this peak. To
the southwark there is the unbroken
mass of Pisgah forest to the east
the great and fertile valley of the