The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1909-07-08
Day Allen Wiley, in ST. Nichoias.


ready to cut, the value of the wood
will be SO much as to we'll repay the
time, labor and expense of reforest-
ing. The firewood industry is so profit
able because those who burn "Bilt-
more wood" can always rely on get
ting the kind that gives the most
heat, as 1t is the product of scien-
tifically conducted woodward.
With the April days the young for
esters pack their instruments, tools
and clothes, mount their ponies and
trail through the wilderness to the
foothills of Pisgah. Here they get
among the tan-bark trees, and for a
month or so they work in peeling off
the bark, figuring on how much bark
tree will yield, packing the bark
for shipment, also in analyzing such
wood as chestnut, which contains a
valuable sap used for chemical prep
arations. In year the boys char
vest 1900 tons of tan-bark, which
goes into tannic acid at an Asheville
factory. With the middle of May
camp is again Struck" and the party
go farther into the wild until they
are miles away from even the border
of civilization. Here they are woods
men in truth. Under the shadow of
old Pisgah they are amid the pri-
meval forest. They become timber
CRUISERS, which means that they go
through a tract, estimating the guam
tity of hardwood and other lumber it
contains, without cutting down a tree.
Scaling the trunk of big oak or
pine, the young forester measures it's
girth at different heights, the thick
ness of the limbs worth saving, and
notes them in his book. If tree is
blown down, he can tell by examina-
tion how much is good and how much
is decayed. His surveying instru-
ments give him ground measure
ments, heights and grades, SO that
after "cruise" he can map down
an acre or a hundred-acre stand"
and tell you not only how many board
feet it contains, but the varieties of
wood and what it is worth at the
market price.
The ranger at Biltmore learns the
business of the logger-cutting down
trees and hauling them from the for
est; also another important branch
of the industry of the forest-that Of
the mill worker, for the boys keen
two sawmills whirring and humming
while they are in the Pisgah foothills.
They become familiar with the
handling of logs on the deck and on
the carriage; they compare the actual
output of logs with the output as des-
ignated by the various log rules, and
they grade the lumber as it comes
from the saw. BY actual practice,
they know how boards are piled and
how the piles are arranged in the
yard. They are required to show by
charts and drawings how each ma
chine in the mill works and it's rela-
tion to other machines. When a mill
is moved from one point to another
they aid in taking down the ma
chinery and in setting it up in its new
position, thus gaining an intimate
knowledge of the mechanical opera
tion of a mill.
are built in Pisgah Forest annually.
These roads are surveyed and laid out
by its guardians. In this connection
they also acquire a knowledge of
bridge-building. The building of
tramroads and making of log chutes
sometimes comes within their expert
ence. They have frequent exercise in
running compass lines, in establishing
boundaries, and In making plane
table surveys.
For ten years American boys have
thus been studying in this school of
the wild. Already it has shown its
value to the Nation, for not few of
those who have left 1t are serving the
country in our great national parks
and other forest reserves where the
Government is protecting the wood
land. Clifford Pinchot, the present
chief of the Forest Service, spent two
years amid the Appalachians, but ably
filling his place are DR.. Carlos
Schenck and DR.. Clifton Howe, to
whom the owner of Biltmore has in
trusted his woodland, and who are
at the head OF his unique colony of
active American boys In the Carolina
overland.
The effect that such schools of ma
ture will have upon the future of our
country can only be hinted at, consid-
ering the great necessity for more
knowledge about our woodland, es-
pecially the way by which we can