2S 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Life at 'Biltmore, a School of Technical Lumbering 



'J'lie lumber fraternity of the country, espe- 

 cially that progressive element which possesses 

 sufficient foresight to have come to a realiza- 

 tion of the rapid depletion of its source of 

 income, needs no introduction to the Biltmore 



RUXXIXG GRADES. 





I-nGlKING FORM HEIGHT FUU MAPLE. 



SECTION OF CUMMER-DIGGINS BEADTI- 

 FT'LLY KEPT LOGGING ROAD. 



:measurixg heights of trees. 



Forest School and its renowned head, Dr. C. 

 A. Sehenck. For the benefit of the few, how- 

 ever, who have been too busy trying to dis- 

 pose of their lower grades to follow the 

 progress of this institution which promises 

 to be the staff upon which the lumber in- 

 dustry will lean for a solution of the problem 

 of the future supply, a brief recapitulation 

 of its history and character might be in order. 

 The school was the first institution of its 

 kind in this country, and through years of 

 'ridicule and criticism by the so-called practi- 

 cal men, has come to occupy a recognized 

 ]ilace in the forest world, and has changed the 

 former sentiment to a decidedly favorable 

 one, even among those men who a few years 

 ago laughed at the very idea of teaching in 

 school anything that could possibly be of 

 value to them as a producer of dollars and 

 cents. 



The idea and object of the school are em- 

 bodied in two axioms original with the doctor, 

 and by him hammered into his pupils from 

 the time they enter, until they become the 

 essence of the whole question. They are: 

 ' ' That forestry is best that pays best, ' ' and 

 ' ' American forestry means any and all work 

 connected with the American forests. ' ' From 

 these truisms it can readily be understood 

 why Biltmore has been lifted above the 

 purely theoretical, which is the character of 

 the usual school of forestry, and has come 

 to enjoy the respect and serious consideration 

 of the most influential factors in lumberdom. 

 But this spirit has been carried still further. 

 Dr. Sehenck declaring that the best class- 

 room for a forest school is the forest. So 

 for the first eleven years of its usefulness the 

 school occupied enviable quarters in the Ap- 

 palachians in North Carolina. The old school 

 of the Pink Beds sent out many good men 

 to the government service or private employ- 

 ment, but the school of the present and future 

 has already proven that it is a step in ad- 

 vance. And why? Merely because, undei- 

 the present arrangements, the Biltmore stu- 

 ilent is given an opportunity to see and study 

 at first hand and under most favorable con- 

 ditions, every possible phase of the lumber 

 business. 



The old connections were severed in the 

 fall of 1909, when the last students were 

 graduated from the school at Biltmore. In 

 the future it was destined to be a traveling 

 school, the first trip planned lieing to the 

 fatherland of forestry, Germany. To the 

 average practical lumberman of America it 

 \vill probably bo difficult to make any con- 

 nection, at first thought, between tlie intense 

 management of the German forests and what 

 he is pleased to call the business like way 

 of turning his own trees into money. But 

 Mr. Lumberman, do you happen to know that 

 the value in Germany of saw-logs of beech, 

 white oak, spruce and yellow pine, 10 inches 

 and up, in the woods, merely cut down, is 



respectively $22.90, $58, $23.50 and $28, and 

 for logs for ties, under the same conditions, 

 is $14.80, $28.90 and $21 for beech, white 

 oak and yellow pine? Now go stOl further 

 and consider that this is a condition which 

 will be perpetuated and that the investment 

 is absolutely safe and increasingly profitable. 

 Which seems the most enticing from a re- 

 munerative standpoint, now? It is true, of 

 course, that foreign methods of lumbering can 

 probably never find a place in our own for- 

 ests, but there are certain conditions existing 

 abroad that make possible the intenseness of 

 utilization and other favorable features in 

 the German forest investment. During the 

 recent trip close, constant observation and 

 hard study put the Biltmore men in touch 

 with the reason and they are the fellows who 

 are going to recognize similar conditions in 

 this country and are going to turn such 

 knowledge into money for themselves or their 

 employers. For that such conditions are 

 bound to exist here nobody will dispute, and 

 like causes always produce like effects. 



Keturning from abroad the school enjoyed 

 the hospitality first of the New York forest 

 service and then of the Cliampion Fiber Com- 

 pany of Canton, N. C. In both quarters the 

 purely practical was encountered and oppor- 

 tunity given immediately to compare foreign 

 conditions with some of the largest operations 

 in this country. The best had been reserved 

 for the last, liowever, and in August Dr. 

 Sehenck took his charges to that Mecca of 

 all lumber industries, Cadillac, Mich. 



It was in these quarters that a Eecoed rep- 

 resentative found the fellows comfortably set- 

 tled on the property of the Cummer-Diggins 

 Company, where, right in the heart of the 

 woods, they are in a position to get out of 

 the months they spend there the very maxi- 

 iinim of benefit. Probably there is no other 

 place in existence so ideally suited for the 

 study of modern lumbering and forestry. 

 Taken from the standpoint of lumbering — 

 i-verybod}' knows that the Cummer -"Diggins 

 operations are among the most modern in 

 the country — could anybody ask for a better 

 chance to study practical lumbering than right 

 there? The fellows are mixed up in it all 

 day. They are awakened in the morning by 

 the whistles and rattle of the logging train 

 sailing by the camp with a load of empties 

 for the loader. Getting into their working 

 i-lothes a sleepy procession files along the path 

 to the eating shack. The "pie-man" is noted 

 for his promptness and at precisely 7 a. m. 

 emerges with his long tin horn and the bunch 

 (if drowsy chaps is instantly transformed into 

 a rushing, ravenous mob. Just why tliey 

 hurry none of the fellows be able to state, 

 but that they do is evidence by an aceom- 

 ]>anying picture taken with a high speed 

 camera that can make an express train look 

 as though it was standing still. At first the 

 fellows had breakfast with the "jacks," but 



