WHY THE FARMER SHOULD PRACTICE FORESTRY
The tree crop is a profitable crop for the average farmer to
grow. Notwithstanding the comparatively sure and easy incomes
which result from the farm woodlands that are well managed,
farmers as a class neglect their timber. Not infrequently they
sell their timber on the stump at low rates through ignorance of
the real market value of the wood. In other cases, they do not
care for their woodlands properly. They cut without regard to
future growth. They do not pile the slashings and hence expose
the timber tracts to fire dangers. They convert young trees into
hewed crossties which would yield twice as great a return if
allowed to grow for four or five years longer and then be cut as
lumber.
Just to show how a small tract of trees will grow into money if
allowed to mature, the case of a three-acre side-hill pasture in
New England is interesting. Forty-four years ago the farmer who
owned this waste land dug up fourteen hundred seedling pines
which were growing in a clump and set them out on the sidehill.
Twenty years later the farmer died. His widow sold the three
acres of young pine for $300. Fifteen years later the woodlot
again changed hands for a consideration of $1,000, a lumber
company buying it. Today, this small body of pine woods contains
90,000 board feet of lumber worth at least $1,500 on the stump.
The farmer who set out the trees devoted about $35 worth of land
and labor to the miniature forest. Within a generation this
expenditure has grown into a valuable asset which yielded a
return of $34.09 a year on the investment.
[Illustration: ON POOR SOIL TREES SUCH AS THESE ARE MORE
PROFITABLE THAN FARM CROPS ]
A New York farmer who plays square with his woodland realizes a
continuous profit of $1 a day from a 115-acre timber tract. The
annual growth of this well-managed farm forest is .65 cords of
wood per acre, equivalent to 75 cords of wood--mostly tulip
poplar--a year. The farmer's profit amounts to $4.68 a cord, or a
total of $364.50 from the entire timber tract. Over in New
Hampshire, an associate sold a two-acre stand of white pine--this
was before the inflated war prices were in force--for $2,000 on
the stump. The total cut of this farm forest amounted to 254
cords equivalent to 170,000 board feet of lumber. This was an
average of about 85,000 feet an acre. The trees were between
eighty and eighty-five years old when felled. This indicates an
annual growth on each acre of about 1,000 feet of lumber. The
gross returns from the sale of the woodland crops amounted to
$12.20 an acre a year. These, of course, are not average
instances.
Farmers should prize their woodlands because they provide
building material for fences and farm outbuildings as well as for
general repairs. The farm woodland also supplies fuel for the
farm house. Any surplus materials can be sold in the form of
standing timber, sawlogs, posts, poles, crossties, pulpwood,
blocks or bolts. The farm forest also serves as a good windbreak
for the farm buildings. It supplies shelter for the livestock
during stormy weather and protects the soil against erosion.
During slack times, it provides profitable work for the farm
hands.
There are approximately one-fifth of a billion acres of farm
woodlands in the United States. In the eastern United States
there are about 169,000,000 acres of farmland forests. If these
woodlands could be joined together in a solid strip one hundred
miles wide, they would reach from New York to San Francisco. They
would amount to an area almost eight times as large as the
combined forests of France which furnished the bulk of the timber
used by the Allies during the World War.
In the North, the farm woodlands compose two-fifths of all the
forests. Altogether there are approximately 53,000,000 acres of
farm woodlots which yield a gross income of about $162,000,000
annually to their owners. Surveys show that in the New England
States more than 65 per cent. of the forested land is on farms,
while in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa from 80 to 100 per
cent. of the timber tracts are on corn belt farms. Conditions in
the South also emphasize the importance of farm woods, as in this
region there are more than 125,000,000 acres which yield an
income of about $150,000,000 a year. In fact the woodlands on the
farms compose about 50 per cent. of all the forest lands south of
the Mason-Dixon line. In Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
Kentucky and Oklahoma, over 60 per cent. of all the forest land
is on farms.
The Government says timber raising is very profitable in the
Eastern States because there is plenty of cheap land which is
not suitable for farming, while the rainfall is abundant and
favors rapid tree growth. Furthermore, there are many large
cities which use enormous supplies of lumber. The transportation
facilities, both rail and water, are excellent. This section is a
long distance from the last of the virgin forests of the Pacific
Coast country.
The farms that reported at the last census sold an average of
about $82 worth of tree crop products a year. New York, North
Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky,
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania each sold over $15,000,000 worth of
lumber and other forest products from their farm woodlots during
a single season. In 1918 the report showed that the farms of the
country burn up about 78,000,000 cords of firewood annually,
equal to approximately 11.5 cords of fuel a farm. The Southern
States burn more wood than the colder Northern States. In North
Carolina each farm consumes eighteen cords of fuel annually,
while the farms of South Carolina and Arkansas used seventeen
cords apiece, and those of Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee,
Louisiana, and Kentucky from fifteen to sixteen cords. Even under
these conditions of extensive cordwood use, our farm woodlots
are producing only about one-third to one-half of the wood
supplies which they could grow if they were properly managed.
The farmer who appreciates the importance of caring for his home
forests is always interested in knowing how much timber will grow
on an acre during a period of twelve months. The Government
reports that where the farm woodlots are fully stocked with trees
and well-cared for, an acre of hardwoods will produce from
one-half to one cord of wood--a cord of wood is equal to about
500 board feet of lumber. A pine forest will produce from one to
two cords of wood an acre. The growth is greater in the warmer
southern climate than it is in the North where the growing season
is much shorter. Expert foresters say that posts and crossties
can be grown in from ten to thirty years and that most of the
rapid growing trees will make saw timber in between twenty and
forty years.
After the farm woodland is logged, a new stand of young trees
will develop from seeds or sprouts from the stumps. Farmers find
that it is profitable to harrow the ground in the cut-over
woodlands to aid natural reproduction, or to turn hogs into the
timber tract to rustle a living as these animals aid in
scattering the seed under favorable circumstances. It is also
noteworthy that the most vigorous sprouts come from the clean,
well-cut stumps from which the trees were cut during the late
fall, winter or early spring before the sap begins to flow. The
top of each stump should be cut slanting so that it will readily
shed water. The trees that reproduce by sprouts include the oak,
hickory, basswood, chestnut, gum, cottonwood, willows and young
short-leaf and pitch pines.
In order that the farm woodland may be kept in the best of
productive condition, the farmer should remove for firewood the
trees adapted only for that purpose. Usually, removing these
trees improves the growth of the remaining trees by giving them
better chances to develop. Trees should be cut whose growth has
been stunted because trees of more rapid growth crowded them out.
Diseased trees or those that have been seriously injured by
insects should be felled. In sections exposed to chestnut blight
or gypsy moth infection, it is advisable to remove the chestnut
and birch trees before they are damaged seriously. It is wise
management to cut the fire-scarred trees as well as those that
are crooked, large-crowned and short-boled, as they will not make
good lumber. The removal of these undesirable trees improves the
forest by providing more growing space for the sturdy, healthy
trees. Sound dead trees as well as the slow-growing trees that
crowd the fast growing varieties should be cut. In addition,
where such less valuable trees as the beech, birch, black oak,
jack oak or black gum are crowding valuable trees like the sugar
maples, white or short-leaf pines, yellow poplar or white oak,
the former species should be chopped down. These cutting
operations should be done with the least possible damage to the
living and young trees. The "weed trees" should be cut down, just
as the weeds are hoed out of a field of corn, in order that the
surviving trees may make better growth.
Often the farmer errs in marketing his tree crops. There have
been numerous instances where farmers have been deluded by timber
cruisers and others who purchased their valuable forest tracts
for a mere fraction of what the woodlands were really worth. The
United States Forest Service and State Forestry Departments have
investigated many of these cases and its experts advise farmers
who are planning to sell tree crops to get prices for the various
wood products from as many sawmills and wood-using plants as
possible. The foresters recommend that the farmers consult with
their neighbors who have sold timber. Sometimes it may pay to
sell the timber locally if the prices are right, as then the
heavy transportation costs are eliminated. Most states have state
foresters who examine woodlands and advise the owner just what to
do. It pays to advertise in the newspapers and secure as many
competitive bids as possible for the timber on the stump.
Generally, unless the prices offered for such timber are
unusually high, the farmer will get greater returns by logging
and sawing the timber and selling it in the form of lumber and
other wood products. The farmer who owns a large forest tract
should have some reliable and experienced timberman carefully
inspect his timber and estimate the amount and value. The owner
should deal with only responsible buyers. He should use a written
agreement in selling timber, particularly where the purchaser is
to do the cutting. The farm woodland owner must always bear in
mind that standing timber can always be held over a period of low
prices without rapid deterioration. In selling lumber, the best
plan is to use the inferior timber at home for building and
repair work and to market the best of the material.