THE FAEMEE'S WOOD LOT 



^"^HE value of a wood lot to 

 a farmer is this year 

 more apparent than ever be- 

 fore, in view of the very high 

 price of fuel. So, during these 

 cold winter days, when the 

 thermometer is at zero, and 

 coal cannot be had at any 

 price, and wood is being sold 

 at prices almost ruinous to the 

 buyer, some of us are con- 

 scious of an unusual depth of 

 gratitude to our fathers and 

 grandfathers, who had wisdom 

 enough to save for us a portion 

 of the original forest as a wood 

 lot ; and we have a keen sense 

 of comfort in drawing on our 

 fuel supply from a source that 

 is entirely out of the control of miners 

 or operators. 



At a recent meeting of the Experimental 

 Union, at Guelph, Mr. R, D. Craig, a grad- 

 uate of the O. A. C. and a specialist in For- 

 estry, stated that a fair estimate of the 

 average consumption of wood per family is 

 from fifteen to twenty-five cords per annum. 

 It is also estimated that a wood lot will give 

 an annual crop of about three-quarters of a 

 cord per acre. At that rate it would take 

 from eleven to nineteen acres in wood land 

 to keep the average family in fuel. If these 

 conclusions are correct there is probably 

 still a sufficient supply of timber to keep our 

 people in fuel, provided the farmer's wood 

 lot is properly cared for. But Mr. Craig 

 believed there was ground for fear that, un- 

 less the present methods are changed, the 

 wood supply of Ontario will be practically 



Fig. 2532. 



exhausted within ten years, and the whole 

 province be dependent upon coal. 



With such a warning as this sounding in 

 our ears, surely those of us who have upon 

 our farms a wood lot, small or large, will 

 place greater value upon it, and give it as 

 good attention as we do any other part of 

 the farm. Cattle should not be allowed to 

 roam about in it and browse the young 

 growth, which, if allowed to grow un- 

 touched, would be a continual source of sup- 

 ply of trees to replace the older trees cut 

 out for fuel. Anyone, who has walked 

 through his wood lot in spring time, must 

 have noticed the great number of little seed- 

 lings of maple and other trees which have 

 started to grow, and which never come 

 to any size where cattle are allowed to 

 browse. 



In reply to his enquiries of farmers as to 



