PISGAH FOREST PURCHASED 



425 



student and for which he possessed rare 

 power. He laid out in the vicinity of 

 the Lodge, trails carefully designed to 

 reveal exquisite glimpses of the moun-"' 

 tains and these he developed still 

 further, by skillful 'cuttings which he 

 termed appropriately "painting with 

 the axe." It was a wholesome sight 

 to see this man of great possessions 

 supervising the development of vista 

 cuttings for the disclosure of some view 

 whose latent possibilities his skilled eye 

 alone had detected ; and it was char- 

 acteristic of him, to judge no such 

 achievement complete until it had con- 

 tributed to the enjoyment of his friends. 

 The range of Mr. Vanderbilt's chari- 

 ties in the mountain community which 

 owes so much to him, he scrupulously 

 withheld from common knowledge. But 

 the largest of his many contributions to 



the general welfare lies in the great and 

 wholesome lesson taught by the activi- 

 ties of his vast estate. For not only did 

 fhe demonstrate the methods and the 

 practical advantages of forestry for pri- 

 vate owners ; he was also a pioneer in 

 scientific agriculture, in horticulture 

 and in model dairying. The stimulus 

 afforded by his example towards im- 

 proved agricultural methods in the 

 South is beyond all estimate. 



George W. Vanderbilt earned, and 

 no doubt he will receive, a high place 

 in permanent public recognition of his 

 distinguished public service. Were his 

 admirable conception of the moral re- 

 sponsibility which accompanies the pri- 

 vate ownership of natural resources the 

 rule instead of the exception, the con- 

 servation problem in America would be 

 already solved. 



PISGAH FOREST PURCHASED 



ON May 21 the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission form- 

 ally approved the purchase of 

 Pisgah Forest of 86,700 acres 

 for $433,500. This price is less per 

 acre than the average of other tracts 

 already acquired although Pisgah For- 

 est has been developed into one of the 

 finest forest properties in the country 

 by the late George W. \^anderbilt. 



The purchase was made possible 

 through the generosity of Mrs. Van- 

 derbilt, who accepted a price over $200,- 

 000 less than the one first asked be- 

 cause she desired to perpetuate her hus- 

 band's pioneer work in forest conserva- 

 tion, and to insure the use and enjoy- 

 ment of the forest for the American 

 people for all time. 



Mrs. Vanderbilt's patriotic feeling in 

 the matter is expressed in her letter to 

 the Commission. She wrote in part : 



"Mr. Vanderbilt was the first of the 

 large forest owners in America to adopt 

 the practice of forestry. He has con- 

 served Pisgah Forest from the time he 

 bought it up to his flcath, a period of 



nearly twenty-five years, under the firm 

 conviction that every forest owner owes 

 it to those who follow him to hand down 

 his forest property to them unimpaired 

 by wasteful use. I keenly sympathize 

 with his belief that the private owner- 

 ship of forest land is a public trust, 

 and I probably realize more keenly than 

 any one else can do how firm was his 

 resolve never to permit injury to the 

 ])ermanent value and usefulness of Pis- 

 gah Forest. I wish earnestly to make 

 such disposition of Pisgah Forest as 

 will maintain in the fullest and most 

 permanent way its national value as an 

 object lesson in forestry, as well as its 

 wonderful beauty and charm ; and I 

 realize that its ownership by the Nation 

 will alone make its preservation perma- 

 nent and certain. 



"Accordingly I have decided to make 

 as large a contribution as I can, in 

 order to help bring this result about. I 

 ofifer Pisgah Forest at a total price over 

 two hundred thousand dollars below 

 that on the basis of which negotiations 

 were entered into with the Government 



