All the benefits derived from the favorable influence of forest bolts
upon water conditions can be had without losing any of the useful
material that the forest produces. The forest grows to be cut and to be
utilized; it is a crop to be harvested. It is a crop which, if properly
managed, does not need to be replanted; it reproduces itself.
When once established, the ax, if properly guided by skillful hands, is
the only tool necessary to cultivate it and to reproduce it. There is
no necessity of planting unless the wood lot has been mismanaged.
The wood lot, then, if properly managed, is not only the guardian of
the farm, but it is the savings bank from which fair interest can be
annually drawn, utilizing for the purpose the poorest part of the farm.
Nor does the wood lot require much attention; it is to the farm what
the workbasket is to the good housewife--a means with which improve
the odds and ends of time, especially during the winter, when other
farm business is at a standstill.
It may be added that the material which the farmer can secure from the
wood lot, besides the other advantages recited above, is of far greater
importance and value than is generally admitted.
On a well-regulated farm of 160 acres, with its 4 miles and more
of fencing and with its wood fires in range and stove, at least 25
cords of wood are required annually, besides material for repair of
buildings, or altogether the annual product of probably 40 to 50 acres
of well-stocked forest is needed. The product may represent, according
to location, an actual stumpage value of from $1 to $3 per acre, a sure
crop coming every year without regard to weather, without trouble and
work, and raised on the poorest part of the farm. It is questionable
whether such net results could be secured with the same steadiness from
any other crop. Nor must it be overlooked that the work in harvesting
this crop falls into a time when little else could be done.
Wire fences and coal fires are, no doubt, good substitutes, but they
require ready cash, and often the distance of haulage makes them
rather expensive. Presently, too, when the virgin woods have been
still further culled of their valuable stores, the farmer who has
preserved a sufficiently large and well-tended wood lot will be able
to derive a comfortable money revenue from it by supplying the market
with wood of various kinds and sizes. The German State forests, with
their complicated administrations, which eat up 4 per cent of the gross
income, yield, with prices of wood about the same as in our country,
an annual net revenue of from $1 to $4 and more per acre. Why should
not the farmer, who does not pay salaries to managers, overseers, and
forest guards, make at least as much money out of this crop when he is
within reach of a market?
With varying conditions the methods would of course vary. In a general
way, if he happens to have a virgin growth of mixed woods, the first
care would be to improve the composition of the wood lot by cutting
out the less desirable kinds, the weeds of tree growth, and the poorly
grown trees which impede the development of more deserving neighbors.
The wood thus cut he will use as firewood or in any other way, and,
even if he could not use it at all, and had to burn it up, the
operation would pay indirectly by leaving him a better crop. Then he
may use the rest of the crop, gradually cutting the trees as needed,
but he must take care that the openings are not made too large, so
that they can readily fill out with young growth from the seed of
the remaining trees, and he must also pay attention to the young
aftergrowth, giving it light as needed. Thus without ever resorting to
planting he may harvest the old timber and have a now crop taking its
place and perpetuate the wood lot without in any way curtailing his use
of the same.