THE WOODLOT PROBLEM 



By Bristow Adams 



Figures to show the extent and value of woodlots are not 

 lacking; some 200 million acres of woodland are said to be in 

 the hands of farmers, with a stand of 311 billion board feet of 

 lumber, plus one and a half billion cords of wood. In area the 

 farm woodlots are estimated to aggregate something more than 

 a third of the total forest, but in stand no more than an eighth, 

 because only 46 per cent of the woodlot area are reported to 

 bear timber suitable for the saw; 43 per cent as yielding cord- 

 wood; 11 per cent as brush. Some four million people ought to 

 be vitally interested in woodlots, because there are about that 

 many woodlot owners. 



When one comes to questions of the specific use and produc- 

 tivity of the woodlots, statistics begin to fail. No one knows 

 just what they produce in quantities or values. Estimates of 

 the annual consumption of fuelwood are guesses, safe because 

 no one knows better. But all authorities agree on these points: 

 that the woodlot is less useful than it should be; that the 

 average farmer takes less care of his woodland, in proportion 

 to its value, than he does of his other crops ; that it is a neglected 

 resource, and was so characterized by Mr. Pinchot in 1909 in 

 a paper before the National Grange, at a time when the con- 

 servationists were very generally calling attention to resources 

 too wastefully exploited, and too prodigally used. 



We are told, however, that less than a third of the product 

 of the woodlot reaches general markets, and that far the greater 

 part of it is consumed on or near the farm. In 1909, the census 

 value of the forest products of farms was reported as 195 million 

 dollars, or 36 per cent of the value of all crops, ranking sixth 

 of farm crops, following cereals, hay, cotton, vegetables, and 

 fruits, but well ahead of sugar (both beet and cane) and tobacco. 



The product of the woodlot could and should rank higher; 

 everyone who has given the matter a thought realizes that, and 

 the new development in the eastern woodlot problem is the grow- 

 ing recognition of the fact that many who have studied the 

 possibilities of the farm woodlot have gone at the problem 



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