6 BULLETIN 753, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tic consumption but to keep the factories running, although it may 
not be so efficient in the latter case as coal. Instead of waiting for 
emergency conditions to arrive, it would be well for both domestic 
and industrial users of fuel to plan on wood reserves in case the 
main reliance, coal, is not forthcoming. 
It has been reported that cotton mills in South Carolina and else- 
where throughout the South are laying in wood to supply the mills 
in case of shortage, in addition to their usual supplies of wood for 
the operatives. 
It is, of course, not desirable to use railroad transportation for 
wood fuel to factories unless there is no coal to haul. Then wood may 
be moved by rail to avoid shutting down. Many factories are so- 
located at points away from large centers that wood can be used 
without shipping, and as in the aggregate they consume a large 
amount of fuel, a change to wood would be an appreciable help. 
WHAT TO USE FOR WOOD FUEL. 
THINNINGS AND IMPROVEMENT CUTTINGS. 
The great bulk of the wood-fuel supply in farming regions should 
come from thinnings and improvement cuttings on farm woodlands. 
Except under stress of emergency, trees which will produce lumber 
or other material of higher value than cordwood should not be cut 
for fuel. 
Trees which are better suited for fuel than for any other purpose, 
and whose removal will be of benefit to the remaining stand, are: 
1. Sound standing and down dead trees. 
2. Trees diseased or seriously injured by insect attacks, or those 
extremely liable to such injury, such as chestnut in the region subject 
to blight, or birch in the gypsy-moth area; badly fire-scarred trees. 
3. Crooked trees and large-crowned short-boled trees which will 
not make good lumber and which are crowding or overtopping others. 
4, Trees which have been overtopped by others and their growth 
stunted. 
5. Trees of the less valuable species where they are crowding more 
valuable ones, as beech, block oak, birch, hard maple, white oak, or 
white pine. 
6. Slow-growing trees which are crowding fast-growing species of 
equal value. 
TREES ON OLD PASTURES. 
On many farms former pastures have become overgrown with 
red cedar, gray birch, aspen, pine, or other trees. The trees came in 
slowly and through neglect were allowed to steal much of the pasture. 
If fuel is to be cut somewhere on the farm, such land as this should 
be drawn upon first of all and redeemed by removing all the trees and 
