FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 83 



farmers cut iu connection with their ordinary farming operations") and 

 not including maple syrup, or sugar/ was 110 million dollars. In other 

 words, in 18U9 the farmers' woodlots of the country produced an amount 

 very nearly equal to two-thirds of the value of the product of the regu- 

 lar lumber industry as it was delivered at the mills. 



Not only is the present product of the woodlots of very great economic 

 importance, but it will certainly be increasingly so as the natural sup- 

 plies of virgin timber disappear. 



The following statistics, from the 12th census, illustrate the increas- 

 ing importance of the woodlot as the states become older. 



TOTAL VALUE OF THE PRODUCT. 



(a) of Lumber (b) of Wood- 



camps, lots. 



Washington 11,532,000 1,002,000 



Wisconsin 18,112,000 6,110,000 



Michigan 20,462,000 7,530,000 



Indiana 4,058,000 5,235,000 



Ohio 4,384,000 5,625,000 



New York 4,364,000 7,671,000 



Connecticut 493,000 1,276,000 



Washington represents the newest tj^pe. Its lumber camp products 

 exceed that of its w^oodlots in the ratio of 11 to 1. Michigan has an 

 intermediate position, having a proportion of about 2.6 to 1. New York 

 has the balance turned the other way, and in the proportion of 1 to 1.8, 

 and Connecticut, where lumbering, as a business, has become very much 

 reduced, has the proportion of 1 to 2.6 in favor of the woodlots. 



It is only fair to add, however, that the product of the woodlot is at 

 present used largely, though by no means wholly, in an un-manufactured 

 or slightly manufactured form (cordwood, railwaj^ ties, posts, etc.), while 

 the product of the lumber camp is in a much larger degree the raw 

 material for a vast series of manufacturers. It is also worthy of note 

 in this connection, that a farmer is usually his own logger. This work 

 is done at a time of year when there is little else to do, and in many cases 

 the entire amount received for the product may be regarded as clear gain 

 to be credited to the woodlot. The lumberman, on the other hand, must 

 build his camps, purchase his horses, camp supplies, tools, etc., and espe- 

 cially employ his labor, the cost of all of which must be deducted from 

 the sale value of his product in determining his profit. The census shows 

 that the value of the stumpage of the cut of |174,000,000 worth of product 

 by the lumbermen during the census year to have been |58,177,000. It 

 is not improbable that the farmers' cut of .|110.000,000 represents as large 

 a real stumpage value. 



The value of the woodlot as a national asset can hardly be over esti- 

 mated. I have already suggested that, devoted to the production of timber 

 under correct management, the woodlot area is capable of supplying the 

 present needs of the nation for timber and to spare. That the woodlot 

 will in the future, at least as soon as the fruits of rational management 

 are available, be an ever increasing factor in the production of saw timber 



1 Abstract of the 12th census, 1900, p. 285. 



