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



stream bottoms. The average annual precipitation approximates 

 that at Asheville, about 41 inches rather uniformly distributed 

 throughout the year. This is less than is recorded in other parts of 

 the southern Appalachian region, for rain-bearing winds lose some of 

 their moisture in passing over the bordering mountains. Tempera- 

 ture extremes range from 96° to — 6° F., the mean annual temperature 

 being 55 Q ; and the average frost-free period extends from the middle 

 of April to the latter part of October. The wind, prevailingly from 

 the northwest, averages 8 miles an hour and rarely reaches a velocity 

 of as much as 50 miles an hour. The sunshine received during the 

 year is 57 per cent of the possible amount. 



At the time of purchase most of the estate was covered with 

 timber — a mixed growth of young and old trees, largely inferior in 

 quality, the residuum of a long history of unregulated cutting and 

 forest fire. The forest was mainly of such hardwoods as chestnut, 

 oaks, hickories, and yellow poplar, with pines in lesser quantities — 

 shortleaf, pitch, Virginia, and northern white. Near Biltmore house 

 about 3,000 acres in the aggregate had been cleared, farmed, and then 

 abandoned because of worn-out soil or serious gullying on the steep 

 slopes. 



The general purpose of the forestry work on the estate was to 

 build up a forest combining utility and beauty. This program included 

 the improvement of the native forest as well as the establishment of 

 planted forest. The old, crippled, and otherwise inferior trees were 

 removed from the native stands to favor the growth and reproduction 

 of the better trees. The earlier planting, particularly that along the 

 main roads, was largely in accordance with a plan for landscaping 

 the estate. Later planting, however, was definitely directed toward 

 the establishment of forest stands. Still later, when some of the 

 plantations had reached an age of 18 or 20 years, experiments in thin- 

 ning were started by the Forest Service on four groups of small sample 

 plots; and these experiments are still under way. Otherwise, aside 

 from a few earlier experiments on small areas, the pruning and thin- 

 ning of some of the roadside plantings, the cutting of a few trees to 

 combat bark-beetle attacks, and the removal of small trees for replant- 

 ing elsewhere, the plantations have been left very much to them- 

 selves. Many of them would be in much better condition to-day if 

 they had received an early thinning. Fire, however, has been almost 

 entirely kept out of the plantations. 



The first forest planting on the Biltmore Estate, in 1890, covered 

 300 acres and was done by an Illinois nursery company. The north- 

 ern white pine, 2 which is native in the vicinity, was the species chiefly 

 used. In 1895 a few plantations were added by Gifford Pinchot, 

 then in charge of the forestry work on the estate. The greater part 

 of the planting, however, was done under the direction of C. A. 

 Schenck, who took over the work in 1S95; from then until he left the 

 estate in 1909, Doctor Schenck made annual plantings or sowings, 

 using some 40 different tree species, about half of them conifers and 

 half hardwoods. Between 1909 and 1912 some further planting was 

 done by C. D. Beadle, superintendent of the estate, who put in several 

 thousand Norway spruces. Of the plantings which have grown up 



a Northern white pine (Pinus strobus) is the only species of white pine used in the Biltmore planting 

 work and hereafter in this circular will be generally referred to simply as "white pine." 



