ampled tract of forest may be or what it would bring at private sale is hard to say. Judging from current prices, much of it could have been sold at from three to four times the figures asked by Mrs. Vanderbilt. The exact area is 86,700 acres, and the price paid was $433,500, but it is known that this is less by over $200,000 than the price at which it was offered to the Government by Mr. Vanderbilt himself, and which was at a rate admittedly low. Certainly the nation has secured a magnificent property at a nominal cost. Mr. Vanderbilt was the first of the large forest owners in America to adopt the practice of forestry. He He had conserved Pisgah Forest from the time he bought it up to his death, a period of nearly twenty-five years, under the firm conviction that every forest owner owes it to those who follow him to hand down his forest property to them unimpaired by wasteful use. It is now proposed to make the region a game refuge for the preservation of the fauna of the Eastern United States. Already the Pisgah Forest is well peopled with deer, wild turkey, and pheasants, and in the streams are rainbow and brook trout. Fishing will be allowed, but other creatures will be permitted to work out their natural destiny unmolested. Within its boundaries they may mate and rear their young, secure from the murderous crack of the high-powered rifle or the terrorizing roar of the shotgun. Indeed, the Pisgah Forest is destined to become a splendid na 41 MRS. GEORGE W. VANDERBILT, WHO SOLD THE TRACT TO THE GOVERNMENT AT A NOMINAL PRICE tional park, peopled with animals and birds, resplendent with its many shades of tree-green, the red and pink of the mountain laurel, the cherry-colored blossoms of the dwarf locust, the red, yellow, and pink of the azalea, and, in the fall, when the frost lightly touches growing things, the brilliant and burnished hues of the virgin Appalachian woodland. The fisherman and the man who hunts only with the camera will find a haunt more fascinating than the virgin forests on the preserve. THE BREAD BASKET OF THE WORLD By Frank G Moorhead THE ROUTES FROM DULUTH AND SUPERIOR TO THE SEA The Welland Canal connects the Great Lakes just west of Buffalo. The dotted line from Buffalo to Albany represents the Erie Canal. By the summer of 1915, although fifteen hundred miles from the coast, this harbor and the one at Superior, Wisconsin, will be ocean points of shipment. The elevator on the dock can handle three hundred carloads of grain a day. made from Superior, a boat carrying one thousand tons was a large vessel; today boats plying to that port carry fourteen thousand tons. The great advantage to be derived by the wheat growers of the Northwest when Duluth and Superior become ocean ports is shown by the immense saving already made to them by even a partial water shipment to the seaboard. The rail grain rate from Superior to New York is 13.8 cents a bushel as compared with 5.75 cents a bushel by lake and rail via Buffalo, a When this country is on an export basis grain prices to the farmer are made on a basis of Liverpool delivery minus freight charges, and New York being the point of export, farm prices are made by reference to freight cost via New York whether shipments are actually delivered there or not. In this particular it is to be noted that the lake route not only saved the $9,272,578.46 actual difference in freight, but also gave farmers in the Northwest eight cents a bushel more for their entire crop than they would have received if the price had been determined by using all-rail freights in figuring freight cost of delivery to Liverpool. The completion of the Erie and Welland Canals will make the benefit to the grain growers of the Northwest still greater. The Welland Canal is being remodeled by the Canadian Government to a depth of twenty-five feet and when this is accomplished Duluth and Superior will be ocean ports through which grain can be exported without breaking bulk in the movement to Liverpool. The Erie Canal is being enlarged by the State of New York at a cost of one hundred twentyeight million dollars, so as to permit the passage of boats of three-thousand F ton burden instead of the two-hundred- HOSPITALITY FOR THE By ROBERT H. MOULTON IRST came the woman's rest room in the down-town department stores of the big cities. Then a place for men was added by these institutions, a place where men might meet their wives or even other men. With this innovation completed the step was but a short one to the dining room in the department store and gradually, as cities grew larger and stores bigger, the American idea of the function of such a store came into being. Now one may go sight-seeing at Field's department store in Chicago or Wanamaker's in New York as in an art gallery, with intention of spending a has taken the place of the rest room. It is the headquarters of every visiting farmer who buys in the little Hoosier town, and because it is an endowed institution there are no membership fees. As in the department store of the big city there is a dining room, a rest room, and a matron who takes care of children all day while the other members of the family are shopping or visiting. Details have been worked out to such an extent that it would be possible to come in for Thanksgiving dinner and leave the youngest at the Club and know that he was well cared for and would not be tempted by mince pies and cabbage salad. Every resident of Jackson county, in which Seymour is located, who gains a livelihood, wholly or in part, by agricultural pursuits is entitled to membership without any cost whatsoever. The living room, which is twenty-five by thirty-five feet, has chairs and lounges, reading and writing tables, magazines and newspapers. At each corner of the room is a nursery, containing baby cribs, baby jumpers, reclining couches, large chairs, etc. The only entrance to these rooms is through the living room, so that children left there will not be likely to wander away without being seen by some of the visitors. Mothers who bring their children to the city may leave them in the nurseries in care of a matron who will be on duty at the Club at all hours of the day. Although no meals will be prepared or served at the Club, a commodious, welllighted dining room has been arranged, where members may partake of basket dinners which they bring with them. The question of the expense of the Farmers' Club is regarded as secondary FARMERS' CLUB OF SEYMOUR, INDIANA G to that of inducing youth to remain on the farms of the country; to become expert in the cultivation of the soil and in all the activities of rural life, so that production may be increased and improved and the cost of living may be lowered. The annual saving to the nation resulting from successful promotion of a movement to keep the boys and girls on the farms pays high interest upon any reasonable investment that is made for such a purpose. |