142 



Consumption in the following percentages : fuel wood, 14 per cent ; lumber 

 and veneer logs, 13 per cent ; posts, 4 per cent. The enforced purchase 

 of a material capable of being produced on the farm wood-lot is a 

 serious economic handicap to the farmers, which is becoming increasingly 

 evident in the steadily advancing prices he must pay for wood or its sub- 

 stitutes. The value of this wood crop can be measured in two ways, first 

 as a saleable product, second as taking the place of material which must 

 otherwise be purchased. High prices lead inevitably to the curtailment 

 of the use of both wood and its substitutes. Less fuel is bumed; build- 

 ings in need of renewal are not renewed; and money which would ap- 

 pear as a profit is sunk in the cash outlays for upkeep. 



The farmer who possesses an average wood-lot of 21 acres is cut- 

 ting annually less fuel than the average farmer consumes in a year; if 

 expressed in wood, 8.964 cords as against 14.6 cords consumed in the 

 form of wood or coal.* In lumber and logs he produces 766.14 board 

 feet as against 1250 board feet used. This will supply him with all his 

 heavy timbers and fencing and all of his rough lumber, requiring the 

 purchase of only the finishing grades. He produces 101 but requires 

 only 86 fence posts annually. His total requirements including the ex- 

 clusive use of wood fuel are 1990 cubic feet. He produces 926.03 cubic 

 feet of these same classes of material representing, however, a surplus 

 of posts, and a deficit of lumber and cordwood. To balance this required 

 expenditure he produces for sale 165.73 cubic feet of mine timbers, cross- 

 ties, piling, and cooperage stock. A 27-acre wood-lot in the average neg- 

 lected condition of woodlands today supplies the farmer with 55 per cent 

 of his wood consumption and if adequately managed the increased pro- 

 duction and sale of merchantable products will make him permanently 

 independent of outside markets for wood or wood substitutes, and re- 

 lieve him of the cost of purchasing fuel, building material, and fencing 

 for all time. If coal is substituted in the ratio of 7.66 tons to 13.4 cords 

 of wood, shown as the average for those farms using wood and coal to- 

 gether, and the wood-lot managed for the production of larger percent- 

 ages of higher grade material, the area may be further reduced to about 

 16.7 acres for the average farm. Under these circumstances there is in 

 the present area of woodland enough productive capacity to supply two 

 thirds of the farms of the state with wood forever. 



•See Appendix, Note 11. 



