FARM FORESTRY IN THE LAKE STATES 3 
farm woods in many localities in the Lake States should not be 
equal to such demands. On the whole, the farm woods are favored 
by good soil and growing conditions, by adaptability to intensive 
forest management, and by proximity to good roads and to centers 
of population and industry. And yet they have received so little 
care, and so large a part of their area has unwisely been used for 
pasture—a use proved to be highly detrimental—that their timber 
volume at present represents but a fraction of satisfactory stocking. 
Hence output is only a small part of what it could be, in terms both 
of domestic and industrial material. Marketing channels for what 
is available above farm needs are poorly established, largely because 
of this limited output. 
Farm woods in the Lake States today cover some 15 million acres 
of land, or 29 percent of the region’s entire forest-land area. They 
contain nearly 14 billion board feet of timber of saw-timber size * and 
about 82 million cords of other live wood. Some of this timber is 
properly growing stock from which periodical growth can be cut for 
various purposes such as sawlogs, fuel, posts, pulpwood, and chemical 
wood. ‘This vast resource is in the hands of 456,000 separate owners, 
representing 76 percent of the farmers in the region. Since the av- 
erage volume of this timber, including growing stock, is 913 board 
feet and 514 additional cords an acre, the average farmer’s share is 
about 30 M board feet of saw timber and 180 cords of other wood, 
growing on 83 acres of land. 
What causes underlie this understocked condition of farm wood- 
lands, with less than 1 M board feet and 6 cords an acre, when the 
stocking easily possible on such lands under forest management should 
average five or six times as much? Part of the reason for present 
low average stand figures les in the fact that more than one-fifth 
of the farm-woodland area is virtually deforested and an additional 
two-fifths stocked chiefly with young trees too small to contain usable 
wood. Reasonably good stocking can be found on only one-sixth of 
the area. 
Farm-forest management is needed in the Lake States not merely 
as a corrective for such conditions on individual farms but as a 
regional policy based upon the contribution farm forestry can make 
to good land use, to stability of industry and employment, and to 
rural social benefits. Yet what appear to be the simplest and most 
logical steps in the direction of economic and social betterment through 
this medium are but slowly taken. 
It is inherent in the system under which farm woodlands are owned 
and managed that misuse leads to greater misuse and low returns 
lead to still lower returns. The farmer whose timberland is yielding 
but a poor cash income is not inclined to regard this land as a very 
valuable part of his farm, especially if his income is low because of 
inefiicient cutting, marketing, and utilization. But it is true also of 
the farmer who cuts substantial quantities of wood for home use, 
markets very little, and therefore does not realize the value of the 
2 The statistics presented herein on the amount and value of farm-forest products are 
not identical with the data on these items that have been derived recently from other 
studies or surveys. Many computation factors have not been constant among these 
studies, with resultant variations in statistical findings. It is believed, however, that 
the statistics in this bulletin are adequate to the purpose of giving a broad and fair picture 
of the extent to which farm woods in the Lake States are contributing to forest industries 
and wood consumption on farms. 
