UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION NO. 61 



Washington, D. C. January, 1930 



FOREST PLANTATIONS AT BILTMORE, 

 NORTH CAROLINA 



By Ferdinand W. Haasis, formerly Assistant Silviculturist, Appalachian Forest 

 Experiment Station. Forest Service 



CONTENTS 



Page Page 



Pioneering in American forest planting 1 ; Factors affecting the success of the planted 



Statistical summary of the plantations 3 : trees 23 



Some noteworthy plantations. 8 | Thinning operations 27 



Planting costs. 13 The plantations as a guide to future planting.. 29 



Results with the species planted 14 



PIONEERING IN AMERICAN FOREST PLANTING 



The forest plantations in the Biltmore Estate, near Biltmore and 

 Asheville, N. C, represent one of the earliest large-scale reforestation 

 projects under private initiative in this country. Planting and 

 seed-sowing operations were begun there about 40 years ago, in 1890, 

 and the work was continued until about 1911. The resulting stands 

 present an excellent opportunity to study the success or failure of 

 forest planting with a large number of species in this part of the 

 southern Appalachian region. With the cooperation of the Biltmore 

 Estate, the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station undertook, in 

 1921-22, a general stud}" of the planted stands and of the more or less 

 fragmentary historical records. The more general and outstanding 

 results of this study are presented in this publication, together with 

 a map and schedule of the planted stands which will serve as a guide 

 to the plantations. 1 The ages and dimensions given apply to the 

 trees at the time of the 1921-22 examination, except as otherwise 

 indicated. 



The Biltmore Estate is a tract of timber and farm land built up 

 from many small holdings by George W. Vanderbilt, of New York, 

 during the years 1890 to 1900. The present area is about 12,000 

 acres. It is located on the low hills and plateau land bordering the 

 Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers, at elevations ranging from 

 2,000 to 2,300 feet above sea level. Its soils, derived chiefly from the 

 disintegration in place of gneiss and schist, are generally stony loams, 

 clay loams, or clay, with narrow strips of alluvial silt or sand in the 



1 The Forest Service wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of the Vanderbilt family and estate in granting 

 the facilities and assistance that have made possible this study and the thinning experiments conducted on 

 the estate since 1916. 



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