POSSIBILITIES OF THE FARM WOODLOT. 55 



10,199,767 acres are classified as improved^ and the remaining 4,568,383 

 acres, as nnimproved land, a little less than thirtv-one per cent of the 

 whole. This is divided thronghoiit the State as follows : Sonthern 

 fonr tiers of counties, 6,940,323 improved, 2,268,476 nnimproved, twenty- 

 fonr per cent, of the whole. In the central counties the area of the 

 improved lands is 2,188,862 acres and of nnimproved 1,033,715 acres, 

 thirty-two per cent, of the whole. In the northern counties there are 

 877,223 acres of improved and 940,911 acres of unimproved lands, 51.7 

 per cent, of the whole, while in the Upper Peninsula of the 518,640 acres 

 of farms, there are 325.281 acres or 62.7 per cent. 



The significance of this set of figures is well worth our consideration. 

 If it is true that nearly one-third of the area of the farms of the entire 

 State is unimproved, it certainly is a matter of importance to the own- 

 ers of these farms to give their attention to any plan for utilizing these 

 idle or practically idle areas, which will make it possible to obtain 

 increased income from them. It is fair to presume that a very large 

 amount of the four and one-half millions of a^res, rated as unimproved 

 land, is woodlot, since one of the first improvements made upon farms 

 in our State is, uece^-sarily, to clear off the forest growth, and moreover, 

 if land once cleared is left idle for any reason, it is soon covered again 

 by a growth of young trees. 



In examining woodlots in various parts of the State the writer has 

 come to the conclusion after careful consideration, that, in general, 

 they may be rated as no more than one-half stocked, that is. they have 

 no more than one-half the number of trees to the acre that should be 

 present to put them in condition to produce the yield of wood which 

 should grow upon the same area. That this rating of the amount of 

 stock is high, rather than low for average conditions, is probably true, 

 for, while we find a few tracts with sufficient growth and in good con- 

 dition, the number of such in any part of the State, which the writer 

 has visited, is not large compared with the number of those which are 

 very poor. Again it is to be remembered that trees growing as they 

 have to under average woodlot conditions, where the ground is swept 

 clear of the usual forest litter and dried by the winds, where grass and 

 weeds have come in, where the sunlight and heat can have free access 

 to the soil, cannot grow as rapidly, upon even the best soils, as they 

 would if growing under the conditions to be found in the denser forests. 

 Hence the half stocked woodlot is not producing one-half as much as 

 would the fully stocked one. but its production is diminished to from 

 two-fifths to one-third what it should be. Let us consider the actual 

 money value of the loss which the lack of productiveness in the woodlot 

 entails upon our farmers. An acre of land fully stocked with thrifty 

 trees of kinds most common in our State, should produce each year a 

 cord of wood at least. Xot every acre of woodland, even if fully stocked 

 would produce that amount, but on the other hand some would pro- 

 duce more, so we may assume that a cord to the acre is the product 

 which is possible for every acre each year in a fully stocked woodlot, 

 and while this is probably a low production for a woodlot which has 

 been fully stocked and brought up to the best conditions, it is a fair 

 basis for calculation. If the production should be a cord an acre per 

 year and is actually one-third or two-fifths that amount, it means that 

 the farmers of the State are unwittingly neglecting to add to their 

 wealth a verv considerable income. Assuming for the purpose of dis- 



