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pebbles from the adjacent river bottoms and molded on frames 
of wood and wire. Near Biltmore are the nurseries, the dairy, 
the swine and poultry oe and other adjuncts of farm life for 
which the estate is fam 
Mr. Vanderbilt isially, Te about six months of the year at 
Biltmore House. e lives quietly, being devoted to literature 
and to the study of natural history, and his guests are usually 
selected on account of personal achievement rather than because 
of social distinction. Occasional visits are made with friends to 
his hunting lodge on Pisgah and to the excellent trout streams 
in various parts of the estate. Once a year the favored families 
of Asheville and vicinity are entertained together at Biltmore 
House ; and during the Christmas holidays every family on the 
estate is invited there to a feast, after which each man, woman 
and child receives a suitable gift. 
The effect of this magnificent estate on the people of western 
North Carolina, combining as it does the artistic and the practi- 
cal, must have been very marked in the past twenty years, being 
no less than that of a great educational institution diffusing knowl- 
edge of facts and methods, giving employment and encourage- 
ment to many, and depending upon and developing the energy, 
experience and devotion of those employed. 
The forest lands are in charge of Dr. C. A. Schenck, who suc- 
ceeded Mr. Gifford Pinchot many years ago as forester of the 
estate. Forestry at Biltmore is twenty years old, the oldest of 
its kind on American soil. According to Dr. Schenck, the prob- 
lems are totally different from those in 1 Germany, where he re- 
followed original lines of development. Lumbering operations 
are conducted on an extensive scale, and the denuded hills and 
abandoned fields near Biltmore, comprising about 2,000 acres, 
have been planted with a variety of useful trees, such as white 
pine, pitch pine, hemlock, oak, chestnut, maple, ash, yellow poplar, 
walnut, basswood, locust and cherry. It is possible to see in 
a short drive all stages of these plantations from young trees 
just removed from the seed beds to trees twenty years of age. 
