BILTMORE AND THE NEW ERA 149 
produced the results. The thirty miles of macad- 
amized road traversing the estate, and the hundreds 
of miles of dirt road that make accessible all parts of 
the large forest connected with the estate, were made 
by the mountain people, the real significance of 
which lies in the fact that these roads, made in the 
country where the people themselves live, and in 
which the grave difficulties of road-making have 
been overcome by scientific methods, have taught 
the people of the mountains how to make their 
roads, as well as something of the advantages of 
good roads and the necessity of caring systematically 
for them. Then there was the stock farm where do- 
mestic animals were cared for, and where were learned 
the advantages of modern sanitary methods as well 
as of high-bred animals ; and there were the gardens 
where new methods and new products were intro- 
duced to the workers ; and there was the forest where 
the astonished mountaineer was to discover that a 
tree is as well worth careful raising as a cabbage. 
It was the scale upon which the work was done, 
more even than the nature of the work itself, that 
gave it its substantial value; for each year young 
men from all parts of the mountains were employed 
at Biltmore, not by tens, or by hundreds, but by 
thousands. They were put to work and, what was 
of equal value in their development, they were sub- 
jected to an almost military discipline. For the first 
time in generations they were compelled to be 
prompt, methodical, and continuous in their efforts. 
And of this there was no complaint. Scotch blood 
