260 



THE FORESTER. 



October, 



only way of getting the timber from Town- 

 ship 40 to the market. With the improve- 

 ment of the river between Raqnette and 

 Forked lakes, which is strongly advised in 

 this working plan, a second outlet would 

 be secured for the timber on the greater 

 part of Township 40, and also for all the 

 other timber tributary to Raquette Lake. 

 The improvement of this river, so that 

 logs might be driven from Raquette Lake, 

 would make a material improvement in 

 the bids submitted for the stumpage. 



Fourth. Township 40 is covered by vir- 

 gin forest. In a forest of this character 

 the annual decay of the overmature trees 

 offsets the annual growth. Each year 

 many large trees die or are blown down 

 and decay. These mature trees, if har- 

 vested, would yield a considerable revenue, 

 and at the same time, the producing power 

 of the forest being unimpaired, the con- 

 ditions of growth would be improved. 

 Under conservative lumbering successive 

 crops may be cut from this forest at recur- 

 ring intervals for an indefinite period. 



Fifth. Under practical forestry this 

 tract would yield a sustained revenue. By 

 the adoption of a conservative and carefully 

 devised system of lumbering, such as that 

 advised in the working plan for Township 

 40, the State would receive a sustained 

 and increasing income from the forest 

 preserve. This would bring about the 



right use of the forest resources of the 

 State lands without in any way interfering 

 with the objects for which the forest pre- 

 serve was created, and without injury to 

 its natural beauties. 



From this statement it will be seen that 

 the lumbering of the softwood timber 

 under forest management is safe, practi- 

 cable, and can readily be made profitable 

 financially; that lumbering under the rules 

 incorporated in the present working plan 

 would tend to improve the condition of 

 the forest, and increase its productive ca- 

 pacity ; that such lumbering would remove 

 overmature trees which by deterioration 

 and decay offset the production of the 

 forest in sound timber, and that all this 

 may be accomplished wholly, without 

 interference with the water supply or with 

 any of the other objects of the Preserve. 



The Bureau of Forestry therefore recom- 

 mends that the necessary steps be taken 

 to secure the lumbering of Township 40 

 by conservative methods. 



Thorough supervision of the lumbering 

 advised in this working plan for Township 

 40 by trained men is essential to the im- 

 provement of the forest, to a sustained 

 supply of timber, and to the preservation 

 of the water-supply. Upon the efficiency 

 of the supervision will depend the re- 

 sults obtained by adopting this working 

 plan. 



THE BILTMORE FOREST SCHOOL. 



THE Biltmore Forest School, under 

 the direction of C. A. Schenck, 

 Ph.D., provides not so much for the 

 scientific as for the practical forester. The 

 Biltmore estate, situated in western North 

 Carolina at the gates of Asheville, compris- 

 ing 110,000 acres of woodland owned by 

 George W. Vanderbilt, forms its field of op- 

 erations. Here, forestal work, consisting of 

 lumbering, reforestation of abandoned land, 

 peelingtanbark, protection from fire, in ad- 

 dition to the development of the agricul- 

 tural, pastural, and mineral resources of 

 the mountainous tracts, has been going on 

 since 1890. 



The task placed before the forest ad- 

 ministration of the Biltmore estate, and 

 continuously impressed upon the minds of 

 the pupils at the Biltmore School, is that 

 of converting virgin forest into a perma- 

 nently paying investment. 



Dr. C. A. Schenck, in daily lectures de- 

 livered at his headquarters at Biltmore, or 

 during the summer in the mountain camps, 

 covers in the course of the year that much 

 of theoretical forestry as seems to him ap- 

 plicable to American conditions. For- 

 estry heretofore has been a German sci- 

 ence, no more directly applicable to 

 America than the German code of laws. 



