Bobwhite 61 



process must in some way be halted or offset, before other conservation measures 

 can become effective. The process is often obscured by temporary augmentation 

 of brush land which follows the clean cutting of mature timber. The extent to 

 which the process has already destroyed the range cannot be visualized by city peo- 

 ple (including many hunters) who do not go afield in winter, and do not see 

 how bare the country is during winter snows. This bareness is further aggravated 

 by the removal of brush from roadsides in the process of highway improvement. 

 Its effects on all brush-loving wild life, game and non-game, is the most im- 

 portant single present fact mentioned in this report. All other conservation 

 measures are at best but stop-gaps until this fundamental deterioration of en- 

 vironment is in some way checked. 



The same grazing whidi removes the brush cover for game of course re- 

 moves the reproduction of forest trees, and decreases the growth-rate of the mature 

 trees which remain. Forestry, therefore, stands on all fours with game manage- 

 ment. Neither can be practiced in grazed woods. 



The woodlot, however, is not the only place of conflict. Gullies and stream 

 banks formerly occupied by brush, and offering particularly desirable cover for 

 game, are being de-brushed by grazing, to the detriment not only of game, but of 

 watershed conservation, and the conservation of soil fertility. 



Map 8 shows the parts of the Agricultural Belt in which grazing is the most 

 severe. Foresters at the Central States Forest Experiment Station find that the 

 woodlot pastures are stocked at the following rates: 



Wisconsin till plain 1.5 acres per cow 



Riverbreaks type 1.7 acres per cow 



Unglaciated hills of Southeast Ohio 5.8 acres per cow 



Ozarks and hill types of Missouri and Illinois 9.2 acres per cow 



Agricultural authorities ordinarily recommend 3.6 acres per cow as the 

 limit of safe stocking on the better farm pastures of the Middle West. When 

 this is compared with the first two figures, the intensity of woodlot grazing in 

 the Agricultural Belt requires no further comment. 



Woodlot Products. The ability of game management and forestry to 

 compete with grazing for the use of the farm woodlot, and in fact the existence 

 of farm woodlots, will depend in the long run on high utility and low cost in 

 woodlot products. 



The present trend is undoubtedly in the direction of lessened dependence 

 on woodlot products. Forestry research, by enhancing their utility and decreasing 

 their cost, can counteract this tendency. The trouble is that the forces of science 

 have heretofore been largely concentrated on helping the synthetic competitors of 

 the woodlot. 



There is an occasional exception. Thus the cost of fuel wood from the 

 farm woodlot has been greatly decreased by the motor saw, but wood is neverthe- 

 less losing ground as a farm fuel. The Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 

 reports the fuel expenses of 70 Ohio farmers in 1927 as averaging: 



