i8 4 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



softwoods are needed, or only fuel- 

 wood material where sawlogs are 

 needed for lumber. Specialized knowl- 

 edge and training are required to mar- 

 ket well the products of the forest. 



The very fact that small quantities 

 are produced places the seller at a dis- 

 advantage, particularly in producing 

 sawlogs and pulpwood that are nor- 

 mally marketed in large volume. The 

 owner whose woodlands represent a 

 relatively minor factor in his total busi- 

 ness cannot be an expert in marketing 

 forest products. If the highly useful 

 service of local sawmills in custom saw- 

 ing special items is not available, the 

 woodland owner must sell his logs and 

 purchase the needed lumber or other 

 products at retail. To farmers, this is 

 not an unusual experience, for they 

 have long purchased supplies at retail 

 and sold products at wholesale. Agri- 

 cultural cooperatives have been mak- 

 ing changes in practices, however. 



The forest-products cooperatives 

 generally may be grouped as branches 

 and subsidiaries of large agricultural 

 cooperatives, cooperative stores, mar- 

 keting associations, processing cooper- 

 atives, special-purpose cooperatives, 

 and organizations that function as co- 

 operatives. 



SEVERAL LARGE agricultural coopera- 

 tives handle forest products. Most of 

 them are purchasing organizations that 

 supply farmers with lumber, posts, 

 boxes, and crates for agricultural prod- 

 ucts. Large-scale purchasing and in 

 some cases manufacture of agricultural 

 containers by the cooperative mean 

 savings to members. 



The large cooperatives should be 

 able to contribute much toward the 

 advancement of forestry. They can 

 short-cut many difficulties faced by 

 small local cooperatives because of 

 their financial stability, established 

 educational programs, wide geograph- 

 ic coverage, lower management costs, 

 and simplified organization proce- 

 dures. Those characteristics strongly 

 favor the larger, established coopera- 

 tives; many of the small independent 



have failed for 



forest cooperatives 

 want of them. 



Branches and subsidiaries of large 

 cooperatives have some disadvantages. 

 Forest management, to be scientific 

 and entirely practical, requires special 

 training and experience. That is not 

 always given proper consideration by 

 those responsible for the policies and 

 business of large cooperatives con- 

 cerned only in a minor way with for- 

 est products. Not all of the members of 

 the large agricultural cooperatives are 

 likely to be forest-land owners and di- 

 rectly interested in that part of the 

 business the dilution of interest on the 

 part of both management and mem- 

 bers weakens the forestry program. 



Most cooperatives have not had a 

 firm policy in regard to conservative 

 cutting practices. The result has been 

 to continue and even accelerate the 

 usual short-sighted methods of exploi- 

 tation where good markets develop. 



A large agricultural cooperative that 

 has made progress toward improving 

 forest practices is the Farmer's Federa- 

 tion of Asheville, N. G. It is a dual- 

 purpose marketing and purchasing co- 

 operative. In 1930, it established a 

 forest-products department and then 

 opened a log yard at each of its 17 

 warehouses. It has marketed as much 

 as 1,000 carloads of forest products a 

 year. The three objectives of its forest 

 program are: To obtain agreement 

 from all landowner-operators to give 

 full cooperation to State and National 

 agencies in fire prevention and sup- 

 pression and to adopt cutting practices 

 based on sustained annual yields; to 

 get the same agreement with operators 

 who are not the landowners (often 

 financed and otherwise assisted by the 

 association) ; and to introduce im- 

 proved methods of cutting, logging, 

 and manufacture of timber products 

 to obtain the maximum utilization. 



The forest-products department has 

 handled logs, posts, pulpwood, tannin- 

 extract wood, chemical wood, cross 

 ties, poles, and lumber. Concentration 

 yards make possible the accumulation 

 of truck and carload units for market. 



