484 JOURNAL OF FORHSTRY 



basis of rural population and is expended through the States Relations 

 Service in co-operation with the Directors of Extension in the various 

 States. The work is chiefly demonstrational and is conducted by 

 County Agents right on the ground. One can readily see the possi- 

 bilities here for extension work in farm forestry. It offers practically 

 a virgin field. No phase of forestry is of greater importance to the 

 States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois than the proper handling of farm 

 woodlands on the basis of continuous production. The area of farm 

 woodlands in these States is about 10 million acres, which is approxi- 

 mately 90 per cent of their aggregate forest area, and farm woodlands 

 occupy between 10 and 15 per cent of the area in farms. 



As in agriculture, so in forestry, the most effective way to encourage 

 farmers to adopt scientific practice is through field demonstrations on 

 their own property or in their own locality. Of course, any increase 

 in the value of products is an additional incentive. Farmers have 

 given little or no attention to the proper handling of their woodlands, 

 and they have been strikingly ignorant of the value of wood products. 

 As a rule, they are chiefly interested in getting immediate returns from 

 the woodland and care little about its future development. This fact 

 should serve as a method of approach in encouraging them to cut their 

 timber conservatively. In other words, they must be assisted to get 

 larger revenue if they are to become more interested in improving the 

 woodland and raising more and better timber. To this end farmers 

 need to be given practical information about markets for the various 

 kinds of timber, methods of selling, the variation in the common log 

 rules used, and, where practicable, the grading of lumber. In some 

 cases it may also be feasible for the farmers to form co-operative 

 associations for marketing timber, as they have formed associations for 

 marketing other agricultural products. An association of this kind 

 would be able to market the material to better advantage than the indi- 

 vidual owners would be able to do. 



Farm forestry should be an important branch of farm management, 

 particularly in connection with diversified farming of the kind prac- 

 ticed in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois. It offers an opportunity to use 

 land that would otherwise be idle. The forest on the farm is the source 

 of much wood for such home uses as for fuel, fence materials, and 

 rough building stock. Where coal is largely used the farm woodland 

 affords a reserve fuel supply. The woodland serves for windbreak 

 for crops ; it affords shade for stock ; it offers an opportunity for the 



