FARM FORESTRY IN THE LAKE STATES Lik 
fee which offer an excellent market for any farm timber available 
or sale. 
The southern woodland district of Michigan (district 10), like- 
wise, 1s one of considerable urban development and intensive land 
use, Where woods occupy only a small proportion of the farm land. 
Unlike southeastern Wisconsin, however, the Michigan district con- 
tains many stands of excellent timber, and its potentialities for 
farm-timber production are among the best to be found in the Lake 
States. A sample of farm woods measured in Eaton County, for 
instance, indicated an average hardwood stand of 6,300 board feet 
per acre. The various markets available for this material are at 
present supplied chiefly from other regions. It is desirable that the 
farm woods fill home requirements for timber in addition to pro- 
ducing a surplus for sale, but much of the high-grade hardwood 
timber which can be grown here will probably yield greatest returns 
if sold to local industries. 
NorTHERN Forest BELT 
The northern forest belt includes the cut-over conifer region of 
northeastern Minnesota, the north woods district of Wisconsin, the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the northern half of the Lower 
Peninsula, and embraces some 53 million acres. Here most farms 
have been developed in the wake of logging operations. 
Farm-forest conditions differ greatly from those in the southern 
belt. The 6 million acres of farm woods constitute only 15 percent of 
the forest land, and the 4.6 billion board feet of farm timber rep- 
resents an average of only 771 board feet per acre of farm woods 
scarcely three-fourths of the average stocking of farm woods in the 
southern belt. The typical northern farm woods covers 48 acres and 
contains 37,000 board feet of timber. 
Of the total farm-woodland area, about one-third is covered by 
second growth of the original forest species—white and red pines, 
spruce and balsam, northern hardwoods, elm, and ash. Nearly all 
the remainder is taken by aspen, jack pine, and brush, which have 
come in after logging and fires. 
The northeastern forest district of Minnesota (district 2) is still 
predominantly forest land. Most of the forest is in Federal, State, 
county, and nonfarm private ownership; only 14 percent is on farms. 
The forests, especially those in public ownership, play a major 
role in the general economy. The chief forest problem of the dis- 
trict is managing public forests and farm woods so that they may 
supply employment needed to supplement the insufficient returns 
from agriculture. The farms are small; 51 percent of them are 
part-time farms, the operators of which need to supplement their in- 
comes by off-farm work, particularly in winter. The area contains 
a number of good markets for farm timber. Industries at Cloquet, 
for example, manufacturing pulp, matches, lumber, and other prod- 
ucts, require a large quantity of various forest materials, half of 
which are purchased from farmers. In the poorer farming com- 
munities are possibilities for small-scale industry based upon forest 
byproducts—berries, nuts, Christmas trees and wreaths, peat ferti- 
lizer, and wooden souvenirs. 
