SELLING WOODLOT PRODUCTS ON MICHIGAN FARMS 



PURPOSE OF THEI BULLETIN 



One of the essentials of successful farming is to know how, when, and 

 where to market crops. Farmers are all deeply interested in this; yet 

 when it comes to selling wood products, most of them are at such a 

 disadvantage through ignorance of markets and methods of estimating 

 and selling, that they lose sometimes two-thirds the value of their timber. 

 Many Michigan woodlots still contain timber which represents the growth 

 of a century. No farmer should let this valuable possession pass from 

 him "for a song." 



The advantage to be gained through knowledge of marketing timber 

 is best shown by an actual example. An 80-acre farm in south central 

 Michigan had on it a 10-acre woodlot containing about 48,000 board feet 

 of basswood and about 12,000 feet each of hard maple, soft maple, red 

 oak, soft elm, ash, and beech. The trees were overmature, many of them 

 were hollow, and the ovmer knew he ought to "sell them to save them." 

 Timber on an adjacent 10 acres had previously been sold for $100 per 

 acre, or a total of |1,000. Instead of selling on the first bid made, the 

 owner, acting on the advice of an expert attached to a nearby forestry 

 school, wrote to a number of wood-using firms in different cities, from 

 some of whom, after examination of his timber, he secured bids on the 

 different species in his woodlot. As a result of his bargaining he received 

 stumpage values amounting, in the aggregate, to nearly $2,000. For his 

 red oak, bought for quarter-sawing by a firm outside the State, he re- 

 ceived $21 per 1,000 board feet. His other trees were purchased by a 

 veneer company, the basswood returning $19 per 1,000 board feet, ash 

 $16, elm and hard maple $14, soft maple and beech $12. 



Few farmers are so situated as to be able to secure the assistance of 

 capable, impartial advisors; and this bulletin is an attempt to supply 

 the deficiency by acquainting them with the uses of different kinds of 

 woodlot timber, the location of some of the principal Michigan markets, 

 and the more important details in the sale of the products. / 



THE WOODLOT SITUATION IN MICHIGAN. 



Michigan farms which cut woodlot products in 1910 (43.7 jyer cent of 

 'I the farms) sold on an average about $50 worth apiece and consumed 

 aoout the same amount.* The total value for the State was over $7,900,- 

 000 (not including maple sugar), or about one-twentieth of the aggregate 

 income from all Michigan crops. The total area of Michigan farm wood- 

 lots is nearly three million acres, which is 15.5 per cent of the total farm 

 area. Woodlots will therefore continue for some time to be important 

 sources of income to the State and to the farms on which they exist. 



♦Bureau of Census Reports. 



