10 CIRCULAR 661, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The Mississippi Valley district of Minnesota (district 3) lies mainly 
within the State’s most intensively developed dairy region. Here, 
the chief problem is how to increase the capacity of farm woods for 
supplying home needs. Many of them are now capable of producing 
the bulk of the farm-timber requirements. In Carver County, for 
example, 40 percent of the wooded farms have more than 14 acres 
each of timber with good management possibilities. In some other 
counties, however, they have been so severely abused that they now 
contain only a few cords of timber per acre—growing stock mostly 
of low grade, producing mainly fuel wood. One step in planning for 
this area must be to determine the proper balance between timber 
growing and pasturing. 
The southwestern woodland district of Wisconsin (district 5) in- 
cludes most of the State’s hilly, unglaciated territory. Because of 
its steep topography and loessial soil this area is subject to severe 
soil erosion, and one of the major reasons for maintaining its farm 
woods and creating new ones is to protect critical slopes and the 
lands below them from damage. Some farms are heavily wooded, 
and timber products on many are harvested for sale. In a number 
of localities, however, such as the Yuba area, returns are less than 
they should be, because of the dominant place held by the inefficient 
portable sawmills and other noncompetitive local markets as outlets 
for farm timber, and because the farmers are at a severe dis- 
advantage in dealings with logging contractors. Furthermore, little 
of the timber produced on farms reaches the better timber markets 
of southern Wisconsin, much of it going for products of low value, 
such as ties, and consequently yielding a poor return. On the 
whole, this district presents the best opportunities to be found in 
the Lake States for improving the farm-forest situation through 
cooperative timber management and marketing. 
Dairying here is nearly universal, and woods pasturing is more 
prevalent than anywhere else in Wisconsin. How to maintain forest 
cover on the lands most threatened by erosion, bring the forests 
into productive condition, conserve soil and water, and at the same 
time provide sufficient crop and pasture land for economical farming 
is a serious problem. 
The central pine district of Wisconsin (district 6) is characterized 
by sandy soils which limit agricultural development. Farm income 
is lower here than in any of the other southern districts. Low re- 
turns from agriculture force the farmers to depend to a considerable 
extent upon supplemental income, chiefly from the woods. Fortu- 
nately a large share of the farm woods is made up of jack pine, 
which finds a ready market at the pulp mills. Improving utilization 
and marketing of farm-forest products is a major problem. 
The southeastern industrial district of Wisconsin (district 7) is an 
area of intensive land use. The presence of large urban centers has 
led to a comparatively highly developed and specialized agriculture, 
with cheese making, market-milk production, and truck farming 
as the most prominent specialties. The average farm of the district 
is relatively small, and the typical farm woodland is both small and 
badly depleted through pasturing and overeutting. Timber produc- 
tion for home use is the primary function of the farm woodlands 
of the district, although there are a number of wood-using indus- 
