FORESTRY. 109 



IX. FORESTRY. 



FORESTRY FOR FARMERS. 



By Dr. B. E. Fernow, Director of the New York State College of 

 Forestry. 



There has been much talk about forestry in the U. S., but 

 there has been little application of the teachings of that 

 science. This is easily explained in so far as the lumber- 

 men are concerned, who are in the business of making 

 money by cutting the virgin woods, similar to the mining 

 of ore, but it is less intelligible with the farmer who is pre- 

 sumed to be in the business of making money by the pro- 

 duction and harvesting of crops, which he grows on the 

 soil of his farm. 



That his wood-lot could and should by him be also treated 

 as a crop seems rarely to have entered his mind. Whether 

 he starts out, as in the prairie portions of the State, by 

 planting a grove, or whether he cuts his wood from the 

 virgin growth which he left after clearing enough for field 

 and meadow, in either case he should fully realize that he 

 is dealing with a valuable crop, which requires and will 

 pay for the attention and application of knowledge in its 

 management, such as a true husbandman would give to it. 



The Wisconsin farmer, just as his neighbor in Minnesota, 

 living in a State largely covered with timber of great value, 

 has special reason to practise the principles of forestry in 

 order to get the most out of this part of the property both 

 for the present and the future. And those who are located 

 in the prairie portions have no less need of maintaining a 

 forest growth on some part of their farm as a matter of 

 proper management of their resources. 



The first thing, as with every other crop, that will have to 

 be decided is on what portions of the farm this wood-crop 

 is best propagated. In deciding about the location of the 

 wood-lot the farmer must keep in mind : 



I. That wood will grow on almost any soil, which is unfit 

 for agricultural use ; that, although it grows best on the 



