The Washington times., 1901-08-18
AMERICAN COUNTRY SEATS
Large Increase in Number of LO-
cal Rural Houses.
Much reproductive Land Redeemed
Through the british Method-Not-
able Examples by the Vande rbiIts,
WilIinm c. whitney, and Others.


The last decade has marked what may
be called the rise of the American coun-
try place. Within those ten years more
country estates have been made by
wealthy city men than the United States
held before. This sudden springing up of
country homes seems likely to continue
until America will be as much the home
of country gentlemen and gentlemen
farmers Great Britain.
There is a tendency among those af-
fiicted with ,Anglophobia to imagine that
men who go out of the city to make
homes are merely aping the English. and
in some cases this is true, but on the
whole there is aping whatever. In
stead. Americans are building country
places for the same reason that their Old
World cousins did-because life away
from the city turmoil appeals to them.
| Heretofore Americans have been too busy
or too poor to make such places. but as
| fortunes were established and rapid
| transit facilities became more effective.
the longing of city men for the country
could be gratified.
A great deal of superflous eloquence and
ink have been wasted in setting forth the
| evils that come from the making OF great
| estates by the rich. Usually the cry has
| been that such monopoly of land is incon-
sistent with the principles of democracy.
| Horace bewailet' the fact that Roman
put0crats We're asing all the green fields
| to make their villas, and equally accurate
and sentimental individuals have sung a
similar song very many times since. But
| it is notable fact among the rich Amer
leans that just now their tendency is to-
ward the redeeming of land which has
r., Tt,fNG he. 70
nous country place of George Vanderbilt
| Fillmore. at Asheville. N. C.-has not
| taken fields from cultivation. but, on the
other hand, has taken almost worthless
mountain land. never of great value agri-
| culturally, its timbers ruined by the fires
| which mountaineers build annually, and
| seeks to make of II farm and forest pre-
| serve Likewise the large estates on Long
| Island consist chiefly of cut-over timber
| land on which no farm produce can be
| raised save when fertilizer of more value
| than the resulting crops is used. Or II
one go the other way from New York he
| will find the beginning of half dozen
| large estates laid in the Shawangunk
4 Mountains. where land sells for 81 an
| acre Likewise, in Michigan. on the sandy
| shore of pine-fringed lake, the late mil
| lionaire David Ward made his country
| home by hiring some scores of men with
| teams to draw clay and cover his sandy
fields to a depth of several inches. Co
| ing south. one finds would-be country
gentlemen prospecting the mountain
| lands of Tennessee and buying up the
worn-out farms of Virginia.
| 1t is an interesting fact that among
these various places there are scarcely
any two alike. They are not made as
| 70 will ha limo
honored fixtures. but about each one is
some peculiar feature which serves to
| give character to the whole. Rich men
are able to carry out their hobbies and
| fads as poor men cannot. and we see very
| often these pet ideas cropping out in their
| country places in way that makes every
such place unique.
| No better Illustration of this tendency
| can be found than in Biltmore. Here the
| pet idea is the forest. Mr.. Vanderbilt is
| making a forest which his descendants
may one day point out as the finest of its
| kind in America. IL not in the world.
| There are more than 10000 acres in the
tract Most of it was used before it be-
came Vanderbilts as pasture ground by
native mountain farmers. To make the
grass better fires were kindled each year
to run through the leaves and low brush
and clear the ground for grass which
sprang up to make good grazing. These
fires killed small trees and did much harm
to larger ones. As years went by they
practically ruined the forest and made of
the whole stretch merely poor grazing
land. Mr.. Vanderbilt set to work remak-
ing this woodland. The best forestry ex-
perts in the world We're consulted or en-
ployed. Rangers were placed in the woods
to prevent fires and guard the game.
Trees We're planted by the thousands and
room for young growth was made by the
cutting down of dead or mature trees. As
result Fillmore will in the course of
some decades become a wonderful forest
not a paying inv estmeut, but great.
deep. primitive forest, worth travelling
many miles to see.
Just slightly akin to this building of a
forest is the making of a country home in
one already in existence. Such was the
plan adopted by Clarence II. Mackay in
his new Long Island home. This consists
of a marble mansion set in the midst of a
dense woods.
There are two country houses on Long
Island. near Great South Bay, that have
equally strange features. One belongs to
an artist. 1t has none of the magnificenec
of the others. for the reason that few
pleasure. But its situation on a bleak
sand bluff rising treeless and unsheltered
from the beach speaks of the longings of
the soul which designed it-longing for
the roaring of old ocean and the stormy
contention of the elements. The other is
the plaything of a millionaire sugar man.
1t consists of some half dozen buildings
on the shores of an artificial canal dug
from the bay to the steps of the mansion.
The idea is Venetian. The millionaire
steps from his door into a rowboat and
rows to his barn or his yacht. On sum
mer evenings guests are entertained In
rowboat parties on this canal. while mu-
sic from orchestra in the mansion fur
nishes the one element needed to make a
moonlight night upon the water perfect.
Small islands have an attraction for the
makers of country homes. There is some
thing about owning an island, of being its
ruler. that savOrs of kingship and brings
special gladness to the heart OF one who
tires of the conventions of a city. For
this reason many islands of the great
lake region have been purchased and
turned into homesteads by wealthy men. |
There are half dozen such near Ganano- |
que in the Thousand Islands. AS one en- |
tiers the Lake Erie battle-ground, Putin |
Bay. he sees the palace of Jay Cooke |
rising from beautiful little green island |
on the right Ascending farther one |
passes at the mouth of Detroit River |
Slocum's island, the home of Elliot |
j. Slocum, a millionaire of Michigan. |