FOREST PLANTATIONS AT BILTMORE, N. C. 9 



are, indeed, within the limits of the 45-acre tract a few small stands 

 and scattered individuals of various hardwood species as well as some 

 odd conifers, notably an acre patch of the best Douglas fir on the 

 estate (pi. 8, B), but the ridge as a whole is covered with pines, 

 chiefly white pine. 



The pines of these stands average 25 feet in height and 4 mches in 

 diameter, the dominant trees being about 45 feet tall and 7 or 8 

 inches in diameter. On the ground beneath the continuous crown 

 cover is a dense leaf litter and a very scanty vegetation in which 

 spotted wintergreen is one of the commonest species. 



Scattered through the pine stands are crooked oak trees with their 

 crowns well up among the pine crowns, distorted by the competition 

 but still struggling to get their heads free. If anything should destroy 

 the pines, these hardwoods would be ready to take their place. At 

 the southern end of the plantation is a particularly interesting patch 

 of greatly suppressed white oaks. These trees, liberated by a cutting 

 of shortleaf pine to check an attack of southern pine beetles, at once 

 began to fill up the opening which had been made in the pine stand. 

 This persistence for many years of small suppressed oaks is one of the 

 most striking things in the Biltmore plantations. (PL 3, A.) 



The reforesting of the steep slopes of Long Kidge was one of the 

 first jobs that Doctor Schenck undertook on the Biltmore Estate. 

 The land was an old field which had been abandoned in 1875, after 

 30 years of farm use. In 1895, when the forest planting was begun, 

 this hill was largely covered with beardgrass. The white pine planted 

 5 years before in the Douglas plantations appeared at this time to 

 have failed, and Schenck therefore decided to plant this site with 

 hardwoods, regarding their presence in the native stands as an indica- 

 tion that they would succeed. Seeds' and transplants of a dozen 

 species were planted in an attempt, which lasted 5 years, to establish 

 the hardwoods. The results were mostly discouraging. Chipmunks 

 dug up the nuts, mice ate the new roots, rabbits fed on the tops, and 

 weeds and beardgrass gave serious competition. After these 5 years 

 of effort, the conclusion appeared to be obvious that not much was 

 to be expected of hardwoods, especially not as long as the rodents 

 were so plentiful. After 1899, therefore, the planting policy was 

 changed, and during the next 6 years conifers, mostly white pine, 

 were put in over the larger part of Long Ridge. In all, during the 

 11 planting years, about 30 species were tried, evenly divided between 

 the hardwood and conifer groups. 



Views of Long Ridge as it appeared in 1924 are shown in Plate 2, 

 A, B. These pictures are particularly interesting in view of the fact 

 that at the time of planting gullying was so bad on the site illustrated 

 that it was necessary to set wattle fences there similar to those on the 

 Old Orchard plantation. The Long Ridge planting was very close. 

 Some of the hardwoods were planted at the rate of 6,000 to 7,000 to 

 the acre. The big conifer replanting was at the rate of 1,900 trees to 

 the acre, the trees being spaced, on the average, less than 5 feet apart. 

 As a result the trees of the present stands, like those of many others 

 of the Biltmore plantations, are seriously crowding each other. 



