five bushels to the acre, or with orchards which 

 produce only cider apples, and less than a half a 

 crop at that. 



It is not yet generally understood that forest crops 

 also may be greatly improved, both in volume and 

 quantity, if care is used in handling the woodlots. 

 That this is true has been amply demonstrated not 

 only in other countries, where returns from wood- 

 lands are often a very important part of the farm 

 revenues, but also in every part of the United States 

 where a fair trial has been made. On many of the 

 farms in the white pine belt of central New Eng- 

 land, saw-timber furnishes the best-paying crop pro- 

 duced. There is no good reason why our farm for- 

 ests should produce only firewood and similar low- 

 grade material. They can, and should, produce a very 

 large share of the nation's railroad ties, telephone and 

 telegraph poles, cooperage material, tanbark and acid- 

 wood, veener logs, and even of lumber. 



When trees are cut from time to time merely to 

 supply farm needs as they arise, with no definite plan 

 or forethought for future needs, the woodlands, of 

 course become run down. If when the farmer wants 

 a few fence posts or his winter's firewood, he selects 

 the trees which will work up most easily or are most 

 convenient to get out, the chances are that he will 

 remove the very trees which ought to be left until 

 they develop into high-grade material. Then later, 

 when perhaps he wants to raise some ready money, 

 instead of a valuable stand of readily salable timber 

 he may find on his woodland a poor growth of trees 

 fit only for firewood. Relatively few farm wood- 



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