Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-22
THE sILTMoRE RANGERS.

their state.-Annie Wiser In London
Mail.
THE BILTMoRE RANGERS.
Boys and Young Men Studying Fores-
try on the Vanderbilt Estate.
When George Vanderbilt went down
10 North Carolina twenty years ago and
fell In love with the country he cut of
the top of a mountain and he built a
mansion which with the grounds sur
rounding 1t forms what is probably the
most beautiful country seat In America.
The woodland fascinated him, says a
writer in ST. Nicholas. He wanted to
preserve it yet to make 1t Of use and
to retain It's beauty, 80 he began add
ing forest after forest to his estate,
until he now owns. 200 square miles of
hill and valley, much Of 1t tree COW
cred, including Mount Pisgah, whose
summit is over a mile above the level
Of the sea.
After he had secured this little en-
pire the question that arose was how
he could best make it serve his pur-
poses. Timbermen say that IL all the
good trees were cut off today, Mr.. Van
derbilt would get so much money from
the lumber that he would be far more
than repaid for the cost Of the land,
because the forest is 80 dense in many
places.
He wants to keep the woodland
growing perpetually" yet to make 1t
pay for itself and to yield enough mon
ey yearly to meet the expense Of fenc-
ing It, with taxes and other outlay.
Thus It is that the Biltmore Rangers,
as they are called, have a working
ground yet also playground unlike
that possessed by any other set of
youngsters in the world.
Boys and young men have come here
from every part of the country and ev-
cry month of the year finds them busy.
From November to April their head
quarters are in Biltmore village, on
whose outskirts there are 5000 acres
of forest belonging to the estate. From
this comes a third of the fuel burned
In Asheville.
Here the forestry students learn
what trees to cut for firewood, how to
fell them, how to saw and pile cord
wood and how to estimate the amount
of fuel wood in standing timber. Part
Of their work consists in reforesting the
old, worn out farm lands which now
belong to the estate. Last year they
set out 100 acres in young hardwood
trees.
In April the young foresters pack
their kits, mount their ponies and hike
through the wilderness to the foothills
Of Pisgah. Here they spend month
among the tanbark trees, peeling bark,
figuring what the trees will yield, pack
ing bark for shipment and analyzing,
such woods as chestnut, whose sap is
valuable in chemistry. The boys har-
vest 1900 tons of tanbark a year.
The middle of May camp Is struck
and they go still further into the for
est and under the shadow Of Pisgah
become lumber cruisers, estimating the
amount Of lumber In tract. With sur
veying instruments they take ground
measurements. so that after a cruise
a student can map an acre Of a hum
dred acre stand and tell you not only
how many board feet it contains but
the varieties Of wood and its market
value.
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 keep two
sawmills whrring and humming while
they are in the Pisgah foothills. All
have a taste Of actual service In the
mills.
They become familiar with the hand
ling Of logs, they compare the actual
output with the output as designated
by the various log rules and they grade
the lumber as 1t comes from the saw.
They learn how boards are piled and
how the piles are arranged in the yard
They are required to show by charts
and drawings how each machine in the
mill works and its relation to other
machines. When a mill Is moved from
one point to another they aid in taking
down the machinery and in setting 1t
IN IN itc nauy nnSifiOn
Between five and ten miles Of roads
are built in Pisgah forest annually.
These roads are surveyed and laid out
by the Biltmore rangers. The build
ing of tramroads and making Of log
chutes sometimes come within their
experience. They have frequent exer-
cises in running compass lines, in es-
tablishins boundaries, and in making
plane table surveys.
For ten years American boys have
thus been studying in this school Of
the wilds. Already 1t has shown its
value of the nation, for not a few Of
those who have left 1t are serving the
country in our great national parks
and other forests reserves where the
government Is protecting the woodland.