26 SELLING WOODLOT PRODUCTS ON MICHIGAN FARMS. 



are distinctly useful ; and since wood can be cut often to better advantage 

 in the winter than in the summer, a means of securing an income dur- 

 ing the unproductive season and at the same time clearing the productive 

 areas for cropping is presented. When the early struggle of clearing is 

 over, however, the woodlot assumes the same importance to the farm 

 that it has farther south, — for shelter from hot and cold winds, supply 

 of fuel, posts, etc., for the farm, and eventually as the source of a re- 

 current income from the sale of the products to specialized industries 

 which may spring up in the vicinity or within a profitable shipping 

 distance. 



Wood for pulp. — Industries reporting the manufacture of wood pulp 

 in Michigan have in the past specified only softwoods — spruce, balsam, 

 hemlock, white pine, jack pine, tamarack, — to which may be added a 

 little "poplar" or aspen. There is a- likelihood that certain other hard- 

 woods besides aspen will be used in the near future, as is now being 

 done in many other States. Pulpwood dealers buy either unsplit bolts, 

 by the cord, or logs, by the thousand board feet or cord. The wood is 

 taken either peeled or unpeeled, some companies specifying one or the 

 other, but many of them taking both at a difference of a dollar a cord in 

 favor of peeled material. Bolts are bought in 4-foot lengths, with diam- 

 eters at the small end of 4, 5, or 6 inches. The cord is the standard cord 

 of 128 cubic feet — a stack 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4 feet high, with 

 usually 3 or 4 extra inches in height to allow for settling. Logs may be 

 8 or 16 feet long. 



Spruce is the most valuable of the pulpwoods, but the amount of 

 spruce in Michigan is so small that it is doubtful whether it will figure 

 to any extent in woodlot sales. At northern points prices of from fo 

 to $6.50 per cord f. o. b. shipping point were offered for unpeeled spruce 

 bolts in 1912, while spruce delivered at Detroit brought |9.85 per cord. 

 Hemlock pulpwood sold for $3.50 rough and $4.50 peeled, balsam for $4 

 or $5 rough, tamarack for from $3.25 to $4, and white pine for about 

 $3.25 per cord. 



Excelsior. — Excelsior manufacturers buy chiefly basswood and aspen, 

 or poplar. Some spruce, balsam, "whitewood" (yellow poplar), willow, 

 and Balm of Gilead, is also bought, and often a little tamarack and 

 birch is accepted, although these are inferior species for the purpose 

 and are not wanted in any amount. The preferred species is basswood, 

 which comprises about half the wood used for excelsior. For the northern 

 farmer, however, it is in reference to aspen that the excelsior market is 

 most important. Aspen ("popple" or "poplar") is a small tree which 

 has sprung up in great quantities over cut and burned areas in the north. 

 Twenty-five or thirty years after a fire the aspen is about large enough 

 for excelsior bolts, although much more can be cut from stands 10 or 

 15 years older. When farm lands contain stands of small, thrifty aspen 

 not yet big enough for bolts, it is decidedly worth while to hold them 

 for the comparatively short period necessary to give the trees value. 



Excelsior wood is bought in bolts 37 or 55 inches long, either peeled or 

 unpeeled. Specifications usually require the bark to be removed "un- 

 less otherwise agreed in writing." Bolts from 4 to 8 inches in diameter 

 are taken unsplit; from 8 to 12 inches in diameter they should be split 

 in two; and when over 12 inches they should be split to the heart into 

 pieces 6 to 8 inches wide on the bark side. Further requirements are 



