14 MISC. PUBLICATION 61, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



$13 an acre, and the Apiary to $10 or 111. With the close spacing 

 that was used, $10 an acre is about the lowest that would have been 

 possible at that time. The wider spacing now generally favored 

 would make planting possible to-day for the same amount or less, 

 in spite of the higher cost of labor and stock. 



RESULTS WITH THE SPECIES PLANTED 



In appraising the value for planting of the species used at Biltmore 

 one outstanding fact is the general success of the pines, and the fail- 

 ure, or at least the difficulty and delay, commonly experienced in the 

 attempts to establish hardwood plantations. The decision to use 

 hardwoods, chiefly the "native species, was made after a few years, 

 when the first pine plantation appeared to have failed. The thrifty 

 white pine stands of the Douglas plantation witness the error of this 

 early judgment. When failure after failure had convinced Schenck 

 of the unsuitability of hardwoods, the planting of pines was resumed 

 and thousands of white, shortleaf, and pitch pines were put in, very 

 close spacing being used to insure a stand. 



Sometimes the pines were used to replant areas already planted 

 with hardwoods; or they were set out on the old fields that had not 

 previously been planted. The results were much the same in both 

 cases, the pines generally took possession of the land, overtopped the 

 hardwoods, and formed satisfactory stands of pine with or without a 

 hardwood understory. 



The hardwood plantings, however, were not entirely unsuccessful. 

 Small hardwood stands of excellent growth and condition are found 

 scattered among the pine stands in man}- of the plantations. The 

 understory hardwoods, usually survivors of the plantings that were 

 regarded as total failures and replanted with pine, are sometimes 

 greatly suppressed but are for the most part sufficiently vigorous to 

 spring up, fill the gaps, and produce hardwood stands wherever the 

 pines are cut or killed by fire, insects, or disease. 



NORTHERN WHITE PINE 



Of the planted stands on the estate, those of northern white pine 

 are the most extensive and important. Some of these stands are 

 exclusively of white pine; in others the white pine is mixed with one 

 or more species of hardwoods or with other conifers. The best are 

 the pure stands of the Douglas plantings, (pi. 1), now nearly 40 years 

 old. For some of these, when 25 to 30 years old, Rhoades and 

 Tillotson estimated yields of 10,000 to 12,000 board feet to the acre. 

 Some of the younger stands of white pine and of white and shortleaf 

 mixed are also making very satisfactory progress. 



Although a good many growth figures are available for stands of 

 many ages, these include no records tabulated systematically through 

 a long period of years. Table 2 gives approximate figures for pure 

 stands of white pine at Biltmore, based on records of a great many 

 stands of various ages, on various sites and with various spacings. 



