What then can be done to show the man most concerned, the farmer, the
importance of the improvement of his woodlot? First, an attempt will be
made to set forth the matter as clearly as possible in print, which is
the object of this bulletin; and the necessary steps will then be taken
to furnish an ocular demonstration of the facts herein set forth by
the establishment of nurseries and the maintenance of model woodlots.
On the big majority of farms in Kentucky, there are certain areas which
are not good farm land and never will be for a variety of reasons
(inferior soil, rocky soil, too steep a slope, etc.); but these lands
in most cases can produce timber crops and should be producing them,
since they are a commercial adjunct to the farm and bring in a revenue.
As Mr. W. F. Cook, of Hickman County, says, “It is a great deal more
valuable than giving the land over to weeds and wild briars.”
Ordinarily, there is little or no attention paid to the woodlot on a
farm, and without attention a woodlot is in much the same condition
as a corn field in which no attention was paid to the kind of corn
planted, and which was not cultivated during the growing season. You
commonly find in a woodlot a great variety of trees, some of a valuable
species and some of more or less worthless species. You also find
crooked and defective and diseased trees, and further you ordinarily do
not find in any particular woodlot one-half the trees that the ground
will support, which is about the worst feature of all, since here is an
economic waste.