FARM FORESTRY IN THE LAKE STATES 19 
rental contracts usually place a restriction upon timber cutting by 
tenants, they seldom make proper provision for care of the woods. 
In pleasing contrast with this picture of low timber returns and 
farm-woods depletion, are a couple of examples of what farm woods 
can yield, both in products and in money, when owners have cared for 
them properly. 
One farmer of Calhoun County, in the south-central part of the 
Lower Peninsula of Michigan, purchased a farm in 1908 on which, in 
1900, the previous owner had logged off the 35 acres of hardwood 
timber, leaving only a licht stand of trees too small to yield sawlogs 
and a scattering of larger trees not worth cutting. In 1908, a fire 
burned over part of the woods, but since this first fire, the woods have 
been so well protected as to be free of damage either from fire or 
erazing. In 1911 this farmer cut 34,000 board feet of timber for a 
new barn, and up to 1939 had cut an additional 12,000 board feet for 
building repairs. In addition to the sawlogs, he cut 744 cords of fuel 
wood and 1,100 fence posts. ‘The value of all these products, in rough 
form at the farm, was $5,779. The average annual return was thus 
about $186, or $5.31 per acre of woods. Meanwhile, the volume and 
quality of the remaining timber have been increasing steadily. Today 
the woodland supports a fine stand of second-growth hardwoods, with 
a volume of more than 6,500 board feet per acre. 
Another farmer, of Huron County, in the east-central part of 
the Lower Peninsula, owns a 280-acre farm which his father cleared 
about 1890. The woodland on this farm was severely damaged by 
fires which swept the region in the 1870’s and ’80’s, and later its 
condition was made worse by grazing. Some years ago, at an agricul- 
tural extension meeting at which the question of woodland manage- 
ment was discussed, this farmer was induced to think of his timber 
as acrop. In 1930 he built a fence around the remaining woodland 
to exclude cattle. The tract now contains 15 acres of mature timber 
including 82,500 board feet of sugar maple and other hardwood saw 
timber, an average of 5,500 board feet per acre. A good stocking 
of young trees has become established. Each year the farmer 
further improves the condition of his woods by cutting out the dead 
and mature timber for his fuel-wood and sawlog needs and for sale. 
Each spring he taps the large sugar maple trees and makes syrup. 
Since 1918 he has kept a record of his yields of forest products. 
During 20 years he obtained a total of 32,000 board feet of sawlogs, 
about 800 cords of fuel wood, and 200 gallons of maple syrup— 
worth in all $4,815. The value of products yielded annually has 
averaged $215.75. 
Studies of the timber yield of well-managed farm woods indicate 
that at normal prices, annual returns of $5 or more per acre are 
entirely possible on most of the better woodland areas of the region. 
Examples of such returns, compared with the amount which: the 
average farmer receives from his timber crop, serve to emphasize the 
inefficiency of typical farm-woods management. The inefficiency be- 
comes particularly apparent when it is realized that even the small 
return from the average farm woods may not continue for long, 
since it is accompanied by increasingly serious timber depletion. 
