Possibilities of Farm Woodlots 25 
New York farm-forests should be permanently supporting 
wood-manufacturing industries established throughout the 
State. The small local factories could be completely supplied 
by the successive cuttings from numbers of woodlots in the 
vicinity. The woodlot owner would have his dependable market 
and the factory owner a dependable supply. In competition 
with outside sources of timber, the farmer has the telling advan- 
tage of a short haul and the saving of long-distance freight 
charges on a heavy and bulky commodity. This saving again 
appears in giving the factory owner who has dependable ees 
forests an Rava tire over others of his kind who would be com- 
pelled to purchase lumber in distant markets. 
If a growth of 150 board feet per acre yearly is assumed as 
an average for all the State timber lands, the farm woodlot 
should easily surpass that average because of the more inten- 
sive care which can be bestowed upon it and the chances to 
utilize the local market for all inferior material removed in 
making improvement cuttings. For lumber, pulpwood, dis- 
tillation, or fuel, practically every scrap of material cut could 
be utilized. | 
Ash, oak, basswood, hickory, and yellow poplar should be 
grown in the place of less valuable species. Tall, straight, 
promising trees of the useful kinds should be given ample 
growing space by the removal of defective or inferior trees 
which crowd them. 
Planting in certain instances is necessary and can profitably 
be done, but as a rule the more satisfactory and less expensive 
Pmatiiods of improvement are thinnings and improvement cut- 
tings on second- ‘growth stands. The ane growth pine and hem- 
lacie largely removed in New York, has been followed by fast- 
growing hardwood, tall, clean, and of excellent quality. Nature 
responds quickly to a little guidance, and judicious cuttings 
will often double the rate of production of high-grade market- 
able timber. 
In 1919 the State paid out over $60,000,000 for timber 
brought in from other States. There is every reason to believe 
with the woodlots of the State under an efficient system of 
