f^7f-^. S. FOREST SERVICE RESEARCH NOTE NE-IO 



1963 



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xperiment Station NAT 



DEC 2 1963 



CURRENT SEKiAL m.m% 



SEVEN-YEAR RESULTS 



IN MANAGING A SMALL WOODLOT 



IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND 



In the five Maryland counties south of Baltimore, there are 825,000 

 acres of commercial forest land. About half of this area is estimated to 

 be in true farm v/oodlands; that is, in small tracts of 40 acres or so that 

 are part of working farms. 



Properly managed, these farm woodlands could contribute to the 

 owners' incomes. Unfortunately, few are under any form of management. 

 Many tracts, even though supporting mature timber, lie unused. Others 

 are exploited by high-grading, or by clear-cutting of all merchantable 

 trees. Moreover, in such unmanaged stands, insects, disease, and severe 

 weather take an excessive toll. 



Yet despite past misuse or lack of use, the income and growth potential 

 of southern Maryland's farm woodlands is good. To help demonstrate 

 this fact, the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station in 1954 set aside a 

 40-acre wooded tract near Beltsville as a farm-woodland demonstration. 

 It was representative of a non-used timber stand. No cuttings had been 

 made in it for at least 40 years; neither had other influences such as fire 

 or storms materially affected the stand. In short, it was reasonably typical 

 of the extensive Virginia pine and mixed hardwood stands of the 

 5-county area — particularly of stands on poorer-than-average sites. 



Three distinct forest types made up the stand: 15 acres in pure pine, 

 principally Virginia pine; 18 acres in pine-oak, mostly pitch pine, 

 southern red oak, and white oak; and 7 acres in pure hardwoods, mostly 

 oaks. 



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