FARM FORESTRY IN THE LAKE STATES yd 
nually averages $93 per wooded farm, but $3.40 per acre of woods. 
However, in the northern forest belt farm-woods returns constitute 
12 percent of the entire farm returns, as against about 5 percent in 
the southern belt and only about 1 percent in the western. 
The farmer’s cash receipts from the sale of timber of all kinds, 
calculated on a cord basis, average less than $4.50 per cord, while 
going market prices at the farm range from $4 to $7 per cord for fuel 
wood, from $4.50 to $9.50 for fence posts, and from $4.50 to $15 
per cord (400 board feet) for sawlogs. In other words, the average 
price which the farmer receives for wood is about the equivalent of 
the market price of his lowest-grade product, fuel wood, although 
only two-fifths of the wood he sells actually is fuel wood. 
The farmer’s failure to obtain prices commensurate with the qual- 
ity of his products, low though it may be, has several explanations. 
Farmers, as a rule, fail to cut their timber in such a way as to obtain 
the best possible products and grades. They quite naturally are not 
specialists at this work, and are usually unfamiliar with market 
specifications and grading rules. Often they do not reach the best 
markets, either because they do not know that these markets exist, 
or simply because of their handicap as individual small producers. 
Of the 5 M or 10 M board feet which the individual farmer may 
produce at one time, a few logs may be suitable for veneer, a few 
for heading bolts, and so on. Even if the farmer could recognize 
each of these grades, it would be impossible for him to seek the best 
buyer for each, nor would that buyer be greatly interested in such a 
small quantity of logs. Furthermore, the cost of transporting a 
few odd logs to a distant market is prohibitive. Consequently the 
farmer turns to the local timber dealer, who, because of the sporadic 
and risky nature of his business and his better knowledge of values, 
usually exacts a substantial discount. Or he may sell directly to 
local industry. But local wood-using industries and markets are 
seldom sufficiently diversified to provide for the highest use of the 
various kinds of timber supplied. Especially in the southern part 
of the Lake States, the chief local market is at the inefficient portable 
sawmill, turning out low-quality lumber and consequently paying 
only the lowest prices for raw material. 
In some localities, farmers sell their timber on the stump to loggers 
who have large contracts with wood-using plants. Many plants 
prefer to obtain timber by contract, for in this way they are better 
assured of a supply adjusted to their requirements and also are 
free of the responsibility of determining whether the original seller 
has clear title to the timber. Such contracts are often based on 
fairly large-scale production, and many farmers who can go into 
the woods only infrequently, at times when other farm activities 
permit, are unable to consider operations of this kind. 
The contractor usually buys the farmer’s timber for a lump sum; 
and the farmer, lacking knowledge of timber measurement and valua- 
tion, is invariably the loser. Even if the sale is made at a stated 
price per unit of product cut, the farmer still loses the return which 
he might have received for his own labor and profit on the operation 
if he had done the cutting and hauling himself in his spare time. 
For example, one farmer near the Yuba area in southwestern Wis- 
consin, to whom a contractor offered $195 for his timber (a fairly 
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