answers requests for information; and if there is 

 sufficient interest in any given locality, he arranges 

 meetings through county agents and gives demon- 

 strations of forestry practices. His primary object is to 

 teach farmers how to care for their own woodlands. 



Cooperative Farm Forestry 



Two full-time farm foresters were working in the 

 Anthracite Forest Region in 1 947. Both worked out of 

 Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming 

 Counties. This work was financed cooperatively by 

 the State and Federal Governments under the Norris- 

 Doxey Cooperative Farm Forestry Act of 1937, with 

 assistance from the Wyoming Valley Chamber of 

 Commerce. It was under the direction of the Depart- 

 ment of Forests and Waters, with technical super- 

 vision from the Lmited States Forest Service. The 

 work has been limited to helping farmers manage 

 their woodlands and market their products. The 

 farm forester inventories a farmer's woodlands, 

 estimates the annual growth and the allowable cut, 

 marks the timber for cutting, and provides the farmer 

 with information on the available markets. 



Forestry by Farmers 



Under the guidance of the extension service, and in 

 some localities aided by a cooperative farm-forestry 

 program, a number of farmers have long managed 

 their woodlands with considerable skill. Among the 

 farmers of the region, cutting practices (fig. 12) are 

 generally better than the average for all private 

 owners. 



The management of farm forests varies with the 

 needs of the farmer. In most instances the best trees 

 are cut and custom-sawed for use in repairing and 

 replacing farm buildings. Trees of poor form or 

 otherwise of less value as saw timber are cut for fuel, 

 fence posts, and mine timbers. In main parts of the 

 area it is a common practice to exchange mine timbers 

 for coal on a ton-for-ton basis. Since few farmers 

 own more than the 10 to 25 acres required to provide 

 the fuel and lumber they need on the farm, com- 

 mercial sales of timber from farm woodlands are 

 seldom feasible. 



To some extent these farm forests are thought of as 

 bank accounts, assets set aside against a rainy day, 

 which are meanwhile increasing in value as a savings 

 account accumulates interest. In times of depression 

 the low -income farmers have to fall back on these 

 forests, and at such times main small farm forests fall 

 to the ax. Unfortunately, the timber is often solcLon 



F-447137 



Figure 12. — An example of selective cutting in a farm woodland. 



a lump-sum basis without adequate knowledge of its 

 market value. Not only does the farmer in such 

 cases fail to realize the full worth of his product, but 

 the product itself often is not used to the greatest 

 advantage. Saw-timber material o( high quality, 

 for example, not infrequently goes into the mines as 

 mine timbers. However, there are in the area a lew 

 examples of Cutting where the owner has used excel- 

 lent judgmenl in selecting the trees to lu- removed. 



Cutting b) farmers was considerably stimulated by 

 the war. The farm agent in Susquehanna Count) 



reports that cutting about doubled a- a result of war- 

 lime demands. The Susquehanna Count) cutting w as 

 heav) bm it was at least in some degree selective. 

 Overmature timber was removed, but apparentl) 

 a good deal oi young growth also was cut. The 

 count) agent oi Wyoming Count) reports a consider- 

 able increase in mine-prop production in the smaller 

 woodlands. Here. ,uul presumabl) elsewhere, r 

 timber operations have followed the es 

 custom oi clear-cuttine. 



The Anthracite Forest Region A Problem Area 



13 



