156 



The Grazing of Farm Woodlands 



Grazing or pasturage forms an alternative use for practically all 

 farm woodlands in Illinois. Being under fence for the most part, it is 

 an accepted practice in the farm economy to give certain classes of stock 

 the run of woodlands to get what grazing they can. 



The attitude of farm wood-lot owners toward this portion of their 

 holdings is shown by the results of the questionnaire as follows : 



Land which should be cleared for agriculture 16.45 per cent 



Land which should be cleared for pasture 15.00 per cent 



Total which owners desire to devote to other use than wood- 



Jand 31.45 per cent 



Land which should be permanently retained as woodland. .. .68.55 per cent 



This large percentage, over two thirds, of the present woodland 

 area which the owners desire to retain as woodland indicates the in- 

 creasing value placed upon forest property by farmers, without any sys- 

 tematic elTort by the state to demonstrate this value, or to educate such 

 owners in the possibilities of timber as a crop, or the methods of pro- 

 duction. Nevertheless the tendency in the past to regard all forest land 

 as non-productive and to clear it as rapidly as possible still sways the 

 thought of many who own woodland which occupies fairly level and 

 fertile soil. A certain percentage of this remaining woodland probably 

 should be cleared and will be in time. If the owners' estimates are car- 

 ried out the ultimate area of farm woodland will shrink from its present 

 acreage of 2,668,050 acres to 1,828,948 acres. An area of 442,894 acres 

 will be added to the cultivated lands, and 400,207 acres to cleared pas- 

 tures. 



It may be seriously doubted whether such results will actually be 

 secured as a whole, for parallel to the possible clearing and conversion 

 of these woodlands there has appeared a marked tendency towards 

 abandonment of the poorer grades of farm land as unprofitable for 

 cultivation. In the one decade from 1910 to 1920 an area of 753,790 

 acres went out of cultivation, or more than the total combined area of 

 proposed clearing of woodland for grazing and cultivation. Again, 

 on the estimates of farm owners, some 221,477 acres, or an area 55% 

 as great as that to be cleared for pasture, should be restored to forest 

 by planting. Without doubt the area which could be profitably planted 

 or restored to forest is many times as large as this, but the individual 

 farm-owners do not yet see the value of such a policy, or else they are so 

 impoverished by endeavoring to cultivate inhospitable soils that they 



