TIMBER GROWING AND LOGGING PRACTICE 17 
cottonwood, and willow, 2 to 5 years. On the average, about two- 
thirds of a post for each acre of farm is needed for renewals each 
year. If a farmer is fortunate enough to possess such post timber 
as Osage orange, black locust, or red cedar, he will need less posts; 
if, on the other hand, he is obliged to use soft maple or cottonwoods, 
he will need more. If purchased, these posts will cost 15 to 50 cents 
or more apiece. 
The average quantity of lumber used annually on farms has been 
estimated conservatively at 1,000 board feet. It varies greatly with 
the current prosperity of the farmer. Regardless of how much is 
used, it has a value of at least $50 a thousand feet, based on its cost 
if purchased. An additional item of saving to be considered is that 
of horse and man labor needed in hauling purchased lumber or other 
wood products. 
The advantage of owning timber is not wholly measured, however, 
by the actual saving in cash to the woods owner. A home supply of 
material will often mean that necessary repairs will be made when 
needed and the farm operations kept up to a high standard of effi- 
ciency ; if the material were available only by purchase, repairs and 
new construction would be put off during hard times, to the deteriora- 
tion of the farm and the lowering of its value. 
The value of a farm woods is partly measured also by the protec- 
tion against inclement weather which it affords to the farm build- 
ings, orchards, crops, and livestock. This is evidenced in parts of 
the region where the woods are scarce. There has, in fact, been con- 
siderable planting of forest trees for the express purpose of protection 
and some for the prevention of soil erosion on hillsides. Although 
turning livestock into the woods for pasture has been the chief reason 
for the deterioration of small farm wood lots, it is still true that live- 
stock, both in summer and winter, need protection such as the woods 
afford and that this has a definite, if unestimated, effect upon the 
animal and the quantity of milk or meat produced. It is not neces- 
sary, however, to give the stock the run of the woods. A sensible 
practice is to fence off 2 or 3 acres for shelter and reserve the rest for 
intensive production of timber. 
Owners of farm woods have frequently stated that they would 
make more from their land if it were cleared of timber and devoted 
to farm crops, and yet they realize the value of home-grown timber 
at small cost readily available when needed. Although farm woods 
are decreasing in area in portions of the region, this is in general 
due more to gradual attrition through grazing than to deliberate 
clearing for tillage. There is some clearing in the bottom lands of the 
Mississippi River and its tributaries where new farms are being 
created on some of the lands recently logged. 
One of the factors most favorable to continuous timber produc- 
tion in this area is that such a large proportion of the timbered area 
is owned by the small farmer who, although not now doing so, can 
and will, if he becomes interested, tend and develop his woods just 
as diligently as his other farm crops with attendant results in growth 
and yield that will be extremely gratifying. Further, if the woods 
are handled as one of the definite farm crops, they will provide labor 
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