10 MISC. PUBLICATION 61, tJ. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



OLD ORCHARD PLANTATION 



On a moderate northerly slope southeast of Long Ridge is the Old 

 Orchard plantation. This plantation consists of a dense, practically 

 pure stand of white pine (7 acres), nearly surrounded by a stand of 

 pitch pine (5 acres), containing a few shortleaf pines and a low, 

 struggling understory consisting of planted white ash, buckeye, and 

 white oak, and natural reproduction of persimmon and hawthorn. 



In 1899, when the planting was begun, this site was an abandoned 

 pasture with deep soil but badly eroded surface. To check the 

 erosion small wickerwork fences, illustrated in Plate 3, B, were set 

 in the gullies, previous to the planting. About 50,000 seedling trees, 

 more than half of them white pine and the rest hardwoods, were set 

 out, the average number to the acre being thus over 4,000. The white 

 pines grew well but not the hardwoods, and after a few years the 

 hardwood part of the plantation was reinforced by yellow pine 7 

 seedlings 1 } r ear old. In 1922 the yellow pines averaged 30 feet in 

 height, while the slightly older hardwoods were about 12 feet high. 

 The average height of the white pines was 35 feet. The yellow pine 

 stand then contained about 1,700 trees to the acre, mostly pitch 

 pine, while the white pine stand averaged 1,600 trees to the acre. 

 The suppression of the hardwoods by pitch and shortleaf pines planted 

 afterwards has been the rule at Biltmore. 



The white pine stand was chosen for one of the experiments in 

 thinning started by the Forest Service in 1916 which will be dis- 

 cussed later. The volume of wood per acre in the living trees com- 

 puted at the time the thinnings were made, was about 2,700 cubic feet 

 in 1916 and about 3,200 cubic feet hi 1923. In the unthinned part 

 of the stand the trees are very crowded, and there has been a heavy 

 mortality of the smaller ones as a result of the severe competition. 



SWANNANOA PLANTATION 



The Swannaiioa plantation, on a steep northerly slope northeast of 

 the Old Orchard stands, is one of the older hardwood plantations which 

 was never replanted with pines. Two distinct stands resulted — one 

 of sugar maple with scattered black walnut and butternut trees, the 

 other of black cherry. The sugar maple and the few butternuts 

 and walnuts have made good growth and at 26 years of age averaged 

 35 feet high and from 4 to 7 inches in diameter, breast high. The 

 black cherry, however, is stunted, crooked, and unhealthy and was 

 only 15 feet high when 26 years old. It is illustrated in Plate 4, C. 



The cause for the poor performance of this cherry has not been 

 definitely ascertained. Black cherry does not grow wild in pure 

 stands and for the most part has not done well at Biltmore when 

 planted pure. Perhaps the failures are usually to be attributed to 

 inability to develop well in pure stands on the poorer sites. The good 

 stand of pure cherry in the Apiary plantation (pi. 4, B), to be men- 

 tioned later, is apparently located on an exceedingly good patch of 

 soil. 



7 The term "yellow pine" is applied to the pines with relatively hard, pitchy wood (also called "hard 

 pines") as distinguished from the soft-wooded white pines. The yellow pines mostly used in the Biltmore 

 plantings wen 1 shortleaf and pitch pines. 



