FARM WOODLAND MANAGEMENT IN THE 

 WESTERN GULF REGION 



By Homer C. Mitchell, senior forester, 

 Forestry Dmmon, Soil Conservation Service 



PROFITABLE WORK AT ANY SEASON 



A managed farm woodland, as a contributor to farm 

 income, has these special advantages : 



1. It provides a profitable use of time at high hourly 

 income. 



2. It provides employment during slack periods, par- 

 ticulai;ly in the off seasons for other crops. 



3. Of all farm crops, managed timber is less likely 

 than any other to fail completely. 



On a well-managed farm where there is a woodland, 

 the farmer can work profitably on a full-time basis the 

 year around. The timber crop affords an opportunity 

 for profitable employment at any or every season of the 

 year, and the very nature of timber growth practically 

 eliminates the risk of crop failure resulting from un- 

 favorable weather. Timber work brings higher income 

 for the time it takes than many other kinds of farm 

 work. 



In the western Gulf region (Arkansas, Louisiana, 

 Oklahoma, and eastern Texas), in 1938, woods work 

 brought as much as 48 cents per hour, compared with 

 15 cents for cotton work. At these rates 27 hours' work 

 on 2y2 acres of managed timber produced about the 

 same income as 85 hours' work on 1 acre of upland cot- 

 ton. To put it another way, a farmer got $100 cash 

 income from a year's growth on 20 acres of timber and 

 got about the same amount from only 8 acres of upland 

 cotton, but to do so he had to work 666 hours in the 

 cotton and only 209 hours in the timber. 



653752"— 45 1 



