The Significance of the Forest 11 



the prices would fall and some of the lots would revert to 

 other agriculture. That is true no matter how valuable 

 the land may be. 



On most farms, in no matter what section of the coun- 

 try, a certain percentage of the land yields but a small 

 profit or none at all under farm crops. In ninety 

 nine cases out of a hundred, such land is abandoned and 

 lies absolutely idle and a drag on the remainder of the 

 farm, for it does not even pay its own taxes. That is poor 

 economy. Why abandon a piece of land merely because 

 it does not yield quite so high a revenue as the remainder ? 

 Why narrow our scheme of management by confining it 

 to the land best suited to certain crops ? Abandoned land 

 on a farm is always a sign of shiftlessness or of an un- 

 developed plan. Each plat should be devoted to the pur- 

 pose for which it is suited, and rare indeed is the land that 

 is best suited to idleness. The farmer's problem includes 

 the management of his whole farm, not of some one par- 

 ticular crop, and his scheme of management should include 

 as careful a plan for the poor land as for that of the best 

 quality; in fact the poorer lands usually require more 

 careful planning. 



The best general solution for the utilization of this 

 unprofitable farm land is to make it a woodlot. This fits 

 readily into any scheme of farm management, produces a 

 good profit and adds to the value of the farm in many 

 ways. No land on the farm is of such poor quality that it 

 will not support tree growth, and some land of the poorest 

 fertility will produce excellent crops of certain species of 

 trees. The little work connected with it comes in the win- 

 ter, when it does not interfere with any of the farm work. 



