WOODLAND VERSUS WOODLOT IN FARM FORESTRY 319 



choice, but in reality a stumbling block in the path of progress in this 

 important phase of forestry work. It is a word of restricted meaning 

 and, while a standard word in the profession, it is neither generally 

 acceptable to the people nor in general use among them. The strong 

 movement of the forest worker to reach the people through personal 

 touch with the man on the farm, as well as by publications, empha- 

 sizes the need for using simple, expressive, often local words for the 

 things he is dealing with. The use of strange or ill-fitting terms tends 

 to separate the worker from his hearer and carries the impression that 

 "he is not of my kind." 



The term "woodlot" appears to have sprung from New England. 

 That it was early considered as specific in character is shown in the 

 title of Forest Service Bulletin 42, "The Woodlot: A Handbook for 

 Owners of Woodlands in Southern New England." ■* The influence of 

 New England as a field for early work and the home of a good quota 

 of forestry workers likely accounts for the present usage of the word 

 and its practical replacement of the generic term woodland. Unfortu- 

 nately the word "woodlot" to many farmers not only suggests "pasture 

 lot," but "hog lot" as well. When employed to refer to a relatively small 

 area of farm woodland with a more or less rectangular or regular out- 

 line, the word "woodlot" has a field of distinctive usefulness. In the 

 States lying east of the Mississippi and south of the Potomac and 

 Ohio rivers, the "prevailing idea suggested by the word 'woodlot' is 

 that of a small, openly wooded enclosure near the barn where calves 

 and hogs are turned out for shade." ^ In Alabama, according to Pro- 

 fessor Price, who handled the course in farm forestry last year in the 

 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, "the boys make fun of the word 'wood- 

 lot' ; they think it is the place in the back yard where firewood is hauled 

 and piled up for the year's supply." The terms most commonly heard 

 throughout the region are "woods," "woodlands," "timber," and "tini- 

 berland." These words are all broad in their meaning. 



In Iowa and other States in that region, according to the results of 

 investigation, the people refer to their native forest growth as "timber," 

 and to planted stands as "planted timber." The word "woodlot" is 

 seldom used. It is doubtful whether the farmers in much of New Eng- 

 land, New York, and Pennsylvania actually use "woodlot" in ])refer- 

 ence to "woods" or "timber" in referring to a specified tract of their 

 woodland. Farms lying within the richer, heavily cleared, and worked 

 sections of the East might easily be an exception, due to the occurrence 



M. W. Hill, in charge of Boys' Club Work in the vSouth. States Relations Serv- 

 ice. 



