16 MISC. PUBLICATION 87, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
15 acre tracts, with primary lanes 50 feet wide and secondary lanes not less 
than 25 feet wide. Cutting this up into smaller tracts is much more ex- 
pensive. But, I hope to make these tracts much larger just as soon as the peo- 
ple who own the cattle and adjoining lands see the increased benefits to be derived 
from grazing cattle and growing timber when the woods are left unburned. 
I believe that growing and protecting pine trees has been a good investment 
for me, for at least two reasons: First, I have a few thousand acres of the 
prettiest young pine trees anywhere in my part of the State (fig. 10) to draw 
on for future nayval-stores production; second, by the interest I have shown in 
forestry work I have been able against the strongest competition imaginable 
to buy turpentine timber in my section, in many instances, at a lower price 
than my competitors. The landowners knew and appreciated the interest I 
had taken in forestry and felt that I would take care of their timber. 
I had nothing but knocks and discouragements when I first began planting 
and protecting my pine trees, but, now it is quite different. My neighbors, 
FIGURE 11.—The five short logs or veneer blocks on which the farmer lost $27 be- 
cause of lack of information and carelessness in marketing. Discouraged by this 
loss, he let the other four blocks go to waste in the woods. His total loss on the 
nine blocks was $61.66 
who ridiculed me most at the start, often call on me to go out and show them 
just how thick to leave their stand of young trees in order to get the quickest 
growth, and how burning through their woods after a rain will injure their 
young trees. It doesn’t take me long as a rule to convince other farmers that 
preventing fires on their lands means far more money in their pockets than 
burning even under control. 
A COSTLY MISTAKE IN MARKETING FARM TIMBER 
An illustration of the money loss sustained by a farmer because of 
lack of information and carelessness may be of interest by way of 
contrast. 
A farmer living in Gregg County, Tex., felled a huge sweetgum 
tree measuring 414 feet on the stump. He sawed the tree into 9 
short logs, or veneer blocks, each 4 feet long. Instead of hauling 
his product to market, a veneer basket factory at the county seat, he 
left the timber lying in the woods for several weeks in hot weather. 
Later, he started hauling the blocks to the factory, beginning with 
the stump cut, and hauled five of them before asking for a scale and 
