The Forest in Farm Management 27 



sheep, especially when it is seeded between the stumps, 

 and advantage should be taken of it. Eighty acres will 

 suffice for cultivated land and pasture for the first genera- 

 tion at least. This area should be selected at the start 

 and fenced off. There should be a definite plan of develop- 

 ment for this eighty acres covering the next forty years, 

 but the details of it lie beyond the province of this book. 



Our business lies with the other eighty acres. It has 

 been explained above that this eighty acres will not be 

 needed in the plan of farm development for at least forty 

 years. If this land is burned over and pastured, as is the 

 common practice, it will steadily deteriorate and will 

 produce absolutely nothing. In the meanwhile the taxes 

 are piling up and the eighty acres of unused land • — pro- 

 ducing no revenue — is hanging as a lifeless burden on the 

 rest of the farm. The tract cannot pay its way, and the 

 rest of the farm must not only pay the taxes, but must 

 eventually pay for the clearing of the land as well. 



This is almost the universal custom, but it is quite as 

 foolish as it is universal. Experience has proven con- 

 clusively that any of this timber land and cut-over land 

 — if the soil is good — will grow up to a volunteer crop of 

 timber, provided it is protected from fire and grazing, 

 and that without any work or expenditure on the part of 

 the owner. Just how valuable the crop of timber is will 

 depend on the character of the soil and the consequent 

 character of the forest. It will vary from forty cords of 

 firewood in some types to forty thousand feet of valuable 

 box board lumber in others. In either case it will be suffi- 

 cient to pay the taxes for the forty years, pay the expenses 

 of clearing the land, if this seems desirable, and often in 



