The Significance of the Forest 13 



country produce some 80,000,000 ft. B.M. 1 of sawlogs. 

 This could easily be doubled by proper management; 

 and it is safe to say that the present area of the woodlots 

 would be much more than doubled if the farm lands were 

 all put to the use for which they are best adapted. 



Posts, most of which are now shipped from long dis- 

 tances at great expense, can be grown at home, and the 

 cost of fencing be very much reduced. Telephone poles 

 for local lines can be grown; railroad ties are eagerly 

 bought by the railroads. Nor must it be forgotten that 

 all of these products yield more or less by-products in the 

 form of cordwood. All of them, also, can be cut in the 

 winter when men are otherwise idle and expensive horses 

 are standing in the stable. 



In many cases, this woodlot can be so located as to fur- 

 nish shelter from damaging winds to the farm crops or 

 homestead. The difference between a cozy home nestling 

 in the shelter of a neighboring woodlot, and a house 

 exposed to the winds of winter and the hot dry winds of 

 summer, may not be calculated exactly in dollars and 

 cents, but it certainly means much to those living therein. 



The esthetic feature of the woodlot is also incapable of 

 exact valuation, but it certainly adds much to the attrac- 

 tiveness of the country. It does away with the appear- 

 ance of shiftlessness always accompanying waste land. 

 Further, it is yielding a revenue from land that otherwise 

 would be a drag on the remainder of the farm ; and it is 

 preparing the way for still greater profits later on — for a 

 generation or two of forest growth will rehabilitate farm 



'B.M. is the customary abbreviation for board measure, i.e. for square 

 feet of surface of boards 1 in. thick. 



