228 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



INDIVIDUAL EXAMPLES OF PROFIT 



Some examples of individual profit from farm woodlots 

 stand out conspicuously. The answer on one in particu- 

 lar, where the farmer said "that there was not enough 

 timber around here to bother with" shows that he ob- 

 tained from 17 acres 60 to 70 cords of wood for himself 

 and tenant, valued at $247.50, 125 fence posts and 600 

 feet of farm lumber. 



Besides, on eleven acres of the same woods he had pas- 

 tured three head of cattle, four horses, and 250 hogs 

 from May to November. When we consider that a fair 

 price for pasturing stock is about $2.00 per head per 

 month we must conclude that this 17 acres of woodland 

 yielded a return fully equal to some of the owner's farm 

 land. 



DURABILITY OF FENCE POSTS 



The figures given on durability of native timber for 

 fence posts, while, of course, a matter of opinion by the 

 farmers who have answered, agree very well with figures 

 on the durability of untreated fence posts given by the 

 Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, by 

 the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, and by the 

 Iowa State College. Soft maple stood lowest in the list 

 with a durability of 2.4 years ; white oak, which is taken 

 'usually as a standard in service tests, was rated at 9 

 years, catalpa was rated at 15 years, cedar at 13, black 

 locust and mulberry at 17 years each, while osage orange 

 or "hedge" had an average rating of 36 years. We have 

 seen specimens of osage orange posts which had been in 

 the ground 35 years, so that we can rely on the latter 

 figure as being not far from correct. Black locust and 

 red mulberry are next to osage in order of durability. 



WOODLOT MANAGEMENT 



The three principal factors influencing successful 

 woodlot management in Illinois are grazing, fire and 

 taxes, and these will be considered in order. 



(a.) Grazing. This is a state-wide practice. Results 

 from the questionnaires show that 84.5 per cent of all the 

 woodland owned by 212 farmers who replied to that par- 

 ticular question is subject to grazing. 



