14 CIRCULAR 661, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
residents with timber from the scattered left-overs of early logging 
and from the farm woods. 
For this reason, farm woods of the Lake States perform a vital 
function in relation to the region’s wood-using industries. Some 4,200 
primary wood-using mills in the region use logs and bolts direct from 
the woods as raw material. Of nearly 1.5 billion board feet and 2 
million cords of wood consumed annually by these mills, it is estimated 
that farms supply 488 million board feet and 92,000 cords. 
In the southern woodland belt of the Lake States, farm woods are 
estimated to provide nearly 90 percent of the needs of wood-using 
plants other than pulp mills. The material supphed includes chiefly 
rough logs, posts, and chemical wood, but also products of higher 
quality such as veneer logs. Farmers sell relatively little cordwood- 
size material to the industries of the southern belt, but provide a large 
share of their yearly needs for sawlog timber—about 275 of the 310 
million board feet, or 89 percent. Out of some 2,480 primary plants 
of all types there are more than 2,000 sawmills that draw virtually 
all their timber supplies from farms. In the northern belt, where 
there is still some large-scale logging, farm woods contribute probably 
about 25 percent of local industrial wood requirements other than 
those of pulp mills. This contribution is increasing as the timber 
holdings of the large mills wane and the field of production is taken 
over by smal] mills suited to operation on scattered timber tracts. 
An excellent example of the close relationship that can exist be- 
tween farm woods and forest industries in the northern part of the 
Lake States is furnished at Cloquet, in northeastern Minnesota, where, 
since 1920, a booming sawmill industry has been converted to a group 
of plants of a size and type suited to the reduced timber supplies. 
Two pulp mills, a match factory, and a wood-conversion plant pro- 
vide a good market for 125,000 to 150,000 cords of small-sized aspen, 
spruce, balsam fir, and other wood, of which probably close to half 
comes directly or indirectly from surrounding farms. About 425 
nearby farmers make direct sales to the Cloquet industry each year, 
recelving an average return of more than $300 each, thus not only 
gaining much-needed supplementary income but also helping sustain 
the Cloquet industry, with its direct employment of some 2,000 persons 
and its vital contribution to the region’s prosperity and economic 
stability. 
The Cloquet situation, however, presents a number of problems. 
Depletion of industrial timber supplies has been a key factor in the 
increasing importance of the farm woods as a source of industrial 
raw materials. But overcutting, especially of the better species and 
grades of trees, 1s steadily depleting the farm-forest resource. Prices 
for their wood have, until lately, been falling and farmers have had 
little economic incentive to practice forest management. On the 
other hand, recent increased demand has stimulated overcutting. If 
the farm woods continue to be depleted at the present rate, it is 
questionable whether the open market for timber products suppled 
by farmers will last long. Because of the depletion of nearby stands, 
the industry is already obliged to obtain much of its supply from 
considerable distances. 
Many of the larger wood-using establishments of the Lake States 
have been adopting a definite policy of reducing or entirely eliminat- 
