FORESTS 



FORESTS 



313 



fann Woodlot : Its Place in the Farm Economy. 

 By B. E. Fernow. 



When the first settlers in the northeastern Uni- 

 ted States hewed their farms out of the forest, 

 turning into pasture and field the larger part of 

 their holdines, they left parts uncut for their 

 domestic wood -supply, — the farm woodlot. This 

 was to furnish fence-posts and rails, repair wood 

 for buildings and implements, and, above all, fuel. 

 It wa.M natural to clear the better land first and to 

 leave for the woodlot the poorer parts; and this is 

 proper. Unsuitableness of the ground for farm use 

 and inc-onvenience of location were probably the 

 main or only considerations by which the woodlot 

 was reserved. It is not likely that the idea of a 

 timber crop, which could be reaped and re-grown 

 at will, like other farm crops, had been present 

 either in locating or in using the crop. It was con- 

 sidered merely a storehouse of material from which 

 the farmer might draw at any time to supply his 

 needs, if the intention had been to make it serve 

 its purpose continuously, it was certainly, in most 

 cases, treated most improperly, — culled and cut 

 without any regard to reproduction. Instead of 

 using first the dead and dying, the crooked and 

 inferior trees, the limbs and leavings, for fire-wood, 

 and thus improving the condition of the remaining 

 growth, body-wood of the best trees was considered- 

 none too good for the stove, and the best trees of 

 the best kind were chosen for posts, fence-rails and 

 other inferior uses. 



As a consequence of this culling system, which 

 left only undesirable kinds and trees, — the weeds 

 among tree-growth, — many woodlots have become 

 well-nigh useless, mere weed patches. Many have 

 ceased to supply even the domestic fire-wood. The 

 soil, which was of little use for anything but a 

 timber crop, is rendered still less useful under this 





^^^"^^ 



Fig. 424. A typical Veimont woodlot (sugar-bush) showing 

 the rocky ground better adapted to forest growth than to 

 agriculture. 



treatment. In addition, the compacting of the soil 

 by the constant running of cattle makes the start- 

 ing of a crop of seedlings nearly impossible. It 

 would not pay to turn it into field or pasture ; the 

 farm has by so much lost in value, simply because 



the woodlot was worked like a mine instead of like 

 a crop. If, after cutting the original, growth, a new 

 crop sprang up, this was merely an accident or 

 natural sequence, not a result secured by a deliber- 

 ate effort or premeditated plan, except in sporadic 



Fig. 425. 



Forest growth in swamp in which farming is 

 impossible. Absolute forest land. 



cases. In the deciduous forest, composed of broad- 

 leaf trees, the sprouting capacity of the stumps 

 was responsible for re-growth, and many woodlots 

 became sprout-lands, which were cut over and over 

 again, also without any care for the stocks, and 

 by this neglect and the browsing of cattle became 

 poorer and poorer. In this way, notably in the 

 southern New England states and Atlantic coast 

 sections, a regular system of coppice, as this kind 

 of sprout-forest is technically called, being cut over 

 every twenty to thirty years, established itself. 



There are cases on record, however, and probably 

 many cases have remained unrecorded, in which 

 farmers in the East have deliberately sown or 

 planted pine and other trees for a timber crop. 

 Again, abandoned fields and pastures have been 

 seeded to pine and other kinds of trees by natural 

 processes, increasing the woodlot area. Undoubt- 

 edly, there have also been sporadic efforts to im- 

 prove the resulting timber crop by thinning, and 

 other practices of conservative treatment have 

 existed here and there ; but until very lately such 

 efforts have been extremely rare. 



In many of the southern states, the proportion 

 of woodland to field in farmers' hands is still such 

 that the woodlot forms the larger part, and the 

 farmed area is shifted by making new clearings, 

 the exhausted farm land relapsing into woodland. 

 Similar conditions are also still prevalent in the 

 western forested sections. 



When the forestless prairies and plains were 

 being taken up for farm use, and it became neces- 

 sary or desirable to plant trees, it was not only or 

 not so much the question of wood-supplies as cli- 

 matic amelioration that was looked for in the wood- 

 lot, and here, therefore, the location was considered 

 with reference to its function as a wind-break ; the 

 plantings were made around the house and farm- 

 buildings, or on the windward side of the orchard, 

 or in shelter-belts alongside of fields. 



