FARM FORESTRY. I 29 



€qual the annual lumber cut of the entire country, which is 

 about 40 billion board feet. In other words, the present area 

 of farm woodlots under proper care and forest management 

 could supply the country indefinitely with lumber. The present 

 stand of timber on these woodlots is very large. It is estimated 

 to exceed 250 billion board feet of saw timber and i^ billion 

 cords of cordwood. It is because of the great value of the 

 farm woodlot to the nation, as well as to the individual farmer, 

 that the woodlot problem is of importance." 



The destruction of our primeval forest was a longer process, 

 and therefore more complete than in America. In the light 

 of present knowledge, gained from past experience, American 

 farmers have realised the futility of trying to convert all land 

 to agricultural uses. They have also learned the great 

 advantages of the farm woodlot. 



In Great Britain we have been content to allow areas on 

 farms suitable for woodlots to lie idle, and for aesthetic purposes 

 we have overcrowded our hedgerows and roadsides and, in 

 some cases, our fields with timber trees. 



Mr John Grigor in his book on Arboriculture drew attention 

 to this fact, as far back as 1868, as the following extract will 

 show : — " The quantity of timber grown in rows along roadsides, 

 around the extremities of estates, and in the division of fields, 

 throughout England, is supposed to be greater than that 

 produced in close woods and forests. Many of her sheltered 

 plains are overcrowded, and present the appearance of one 

 continuous forest. In Scotland the case is very different, and 

 in numerous instances, for want of the shelter and embellishment 

 of timber, the country assumes an aspect bare and uninteresting. 

 With respect to agriculture, both extremes are to be avoided. 

 An excess of shelter exhausts the soil, enfeebles the crops, and 

 renders their safety uncertain during the humidity of autumn. 

 On the other hand, bareness in exposed situations is attended 

 with many disadvantages. In unfavourable weather, pasture 

 and crops of every kind are retarded, particularly in the opening 

 of the season; and fields are found ill adapted for the more 

 tender kinds of animals which are now to be found everywhere 

 throughout the country. The injury also sustained by winds, 

 both to the stems of the growing plant during summer, and in 

 the shedding of grain in autumn, is often very considerable. We 

 know districts of light friable soil, where scarcely a season 



