FARM FORESTRY IN THE LAKE STATES 31 
Federal Government would take over the task if a State so desired, 
or if it failed to take effective measures. Regulation is especially 
needed in the northern forest belt, where industrial holdings are in- 
termingled with farm woodlands and where there is still opportunity 
to preserve some growing stock on the land and to stop the wasteful 
cycle of destructive cutting followed by eventual restoration at public 
cost. 
Since the action program for farm forestry in the Lake States 
must be developed on the basis ef sound principles of land utilization, 
woodland management, and economics, research on a much wider scale 
than is possible at present is essential. 
The chief problem which still requires solution through farm-forest 
research is that of the proper place of timber production in the farm 
business—a problem understood at present only in outline. This 
involves not merely the broad considerations of timber and agricul- 
tural output and markets over wide areas, but also considerations 
peculiar to individual farms and capable of study only on an indi- 
vidual-farm basis. On the four farm forestry demonstration projects 
in the Lake States, each representing distinctive farm and woodland 
areas, provisions have been made for taking farm records similar to 
those now used by farm-management specialists, but covering the 
farm-woods part of the enterprise in more detail. Similar records 
are needed for farm and woodland areas not now represented by 
demonstration projects. Economic studies of farm enterprises con- 
ducted by the agricultural experiment stations could readily be 
expanded to give due attention to farm forestry. Records from all 
these sources, together with data obtained through the broader eco- 
nomic surveys, need to be gathered and studied to provide basic 
information necessary for budgeting the use of farm resources for the 
greatest benefit. 
For the Lake States region as a whole, also, further research is 
needed into the possibilities of forest cooperatives, based upon a 
study of existing associations. Much needs to be learned about 
methods of cutting and grading forest products, and about types of 
milling equipment best suited to the processing of farm timber. Sur- 
veys are needed of the principal timber markets of the region, in 
order to learn what their requirements are and what part of these 
requirements can be supplied from the farm woods. 
While the principles involved in growing and caring for timber 
are, in general, of universal application and require no special ap- 
proach from the farm-woods point of view, several problems peculiar 
to the farm woods require special study. Information is still frag- 
mentary on the general question of the best systems of cutting and 
regenerating such farm-woodland types as oak, scrub oak, and low- 
land hardwoods. In the western prairie belt, problems of nursery 
practice, choice of kinds of trees to plant, and means of avoiding 
drought injury require study. In each of the principal farm-forest 
belts of the Lake States, in fact, research problems of farm-woods 
management present themselves which must be answered in order to 
provide a sound basis for a broad regional program of farm forestry. 
There is a considerable degree of interdependence among the four 
expanded or new activities herein outlined as important to the farm 
forestry program. Research is basic to all the other three, and must 
be designed adequately to serve their needs for specific technical in- 
