FORESTS 



FORESTS 



315 



apparently unimportant corners of the farm, may 

 account for it. There are on most farms soils that 

 are fit only for timber crops ; there are also every- 

 where conditions of farm soils and of markets 

 which make it doubtful whether farming the soil 

 pays ; others, where pasturing is the only profitable 

 use of the ground ; and, again, others where, 

 although farm crops might still be raised, timber 

 cropping alone is advisable. 



A German authority on farming matters some 

 years ago made an extensive investigation to find 

 out when, under the conditions prevailing in his 

 country, it was more profitable to abandon farming 

 and to plant to forest. He found that on land fit 

 only for oats and rye, which does not give a net 

 yield of more than eighty cents per acre, or on 

 wheat soil of more than one dollar and eighty cents 

 per acre, it would pay better to plant to forest, 

 pine in the first case and spruce in the secbnd case, 

 provided the owner could wait forty or fifty years 

 for the return. According to various circumstances, 

 the financial result from wood-cropping would -then 

 be 15 to 60 per cent higher than the accumulated 

 farm returns, with wood at three to seven cents 

 per cubic foot, and an annual production of sixty 

 to seventy cubic feet per acre, say two-thirds of a 

 cord. Although we cite this calculation from a 

 foreign country, where entirely different conditions 

 of market exist, merely to make it clear that such 

 matters are capable of calculation, yet the figuring 

 may not vary so very much in this country with 

 spruce wood worth now four cents or more, and 

 pine in places bringing twelve to sixteen cents per 

 cubic foot. 



(3) Utilizing of labor. — A value not to be under- 

 estimated lies in the fact that the work in the 

 woods can be performed at the season when other 

 work is slack. This factor is discussed at length 

 in the succeeding article. 



(4) In its influence on its environment. — Lastly, 

 we should mention the influence of the woodlot on 



Fig. 427. Desert wheie yuccas still maintain themselves, but 

 farm crops fail entirely. (Figs. 424 to 428 are from photo- 

 graphs loaned by the Forest Service.) 



the climatic, soil and water conditions of the farm, 

 wherein in some situations may lie its greatest 

 value; not only on the wind-swept prairie farms, 

 but in the eastern and southern sections of the 

 country as well. We are not inclined to overesti- 

 mate thesg influences. But we do know that springs 



Fig. 428. Characteristic root system of 

 trees, enabling them to grow on soils 

 and situations unsuitable to farm 

 crops. 



have run dry when the shading wood was cut off 

 and were replenished when forest conditions were 

 reestablished. Not everywhere and under all cir- 

 cumstances will this be experienced, for there are 

 other influences at work which give rise to springs 

 and which 

 may be so po- 

 tent that the 

 forest influ- 

 ence becomes 

 negligible. 

 Yet the fact 

 that in gen- 

 eral on moun- 

 tain slopes a 

 forest cover is 

 influential in 

 producing 

 equable water 

 conditions, 

 that it pre- 

 vents erosion 

 and washing of the soil, is not doubted by any one 

 who has studied the history of the results of defor- 

 estation in France, where thousands of farmers 

 became homeless by the terrible work of the tor- 

 rential mountain streams and where, by reforest- 

 ing, favorable conditions have been reestablished. 

 In our southern states, especially where the com- 

 pact soils are liable to gullying, the proper location 

 of woodlots, together with proper methods of culti- 

 vation, will reduce this danger. 



The philosophy of this forest influence lies in the 

 fact that a forest cover changes surface drain- 

 age into sub-drainage, checking the rush of water 

 over the ground by the litter, brush and tree 

 trunks, and thus giving time for it to penetrate the 

 soil and to drain off slowly. Generally speaking, 

 larger amounts of water penetrate the soil and are 

 stored under forest growth, which prevents rapid 

 evaporation. Later it becomes available by sub- 

 drainage, feeding the springs and other subsoil 

 waters, and thus ultimately becoming a benefit to 

 neighboring fields. This action presupposes that 

 the effective forest floor of mulch and litter and 

 shrubs has not been destroyed by fire or by over- 

 pasturing and tramping by cattle. 



The farmer in the West has learned by experi- 

 ence the benefit of the windbreak, and orchardists 

 have long known its value ; but that crops in fields 

 protected by timber -belts yield better than in 

 unprotected fields, and especially that winter frosts 

 are prevented by such protection, is not fully 

 realized by farmers. By preventing deep freezing 

 of the soil the winter cold is not so much prolonged, 

 and the frequent fogs and mists that hover near 

 forest growths prevent many frosts. That stock 

 will thrive better where it can find protection from 

 the cold blasts of winter and the heat of the gun 

 in summer, is another fact which gives value to 

 the woodlot where stock is kept out. 



Experiments have shown that every foot in 

 height of a forest growth will protect one rod in 

 distance, and a series of small timber-belts would 

 produce most favorable farm conditions. 



