690 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 20, 1022 
bad shape, so that to be conservative one might say 
that approximately 12,000 board feet of merchant¬ 
able lumber would be available each year, with pei - - 
haps 20 full cords of fuel wood. The growth of 
hardwood and pine together make it possible to cut 
approximately 20.000 board feet of lumber each 
year, and 20 cords of fuel wood. This can be in¬ 
creased and probably will be during the coming 
years, so that it is not too much to estimate that 
by 1940 the allowed annual cut may be nearly twice 
what it is today. 
FIGURING RETURNS.—Based upon the present 
estimate of growth the gross returns can be safely 
figured as follows: 
20,000 board feet of miscellaneous lumber 
at $50 . $1,000 
20 cords of fuel wood at $10. 200 
The cost, of operation^ in a woodlot in Central 
New York are approximately as follows: 
PER m. it. XT. 
Felling and trimming logs. $2.50 
Skidding and loading logs. 2.00 
Hauling logs one mile.50 
Sawing at mill. 7.00 
Piling, sorting, etc. 1.50 
Loading and hauling lumber three miles to car 
or point of delivery. 1.50 
Total.$15.00 
These figures must necessarily vary on any given 
tract. They will depend upon the character of the 
labor, topography of the woodlot, the condition of 
the roads and the length of haul. The cost of saw¬ 
ing is that which is usually charged for custom work, 
and will differ somewhat in various regions. There 
is usually little if any profit which can be placed 
upon cordwood. This is usually a by-product. Be¬ 
cause of the competition in most regions, the price 
received from the consumer at the point of delivery 
is little more than the cost, of cutting, storing and 
hauling for delivery. It does, however, furnish a 
fair labor return to the operator. 
THINNING TIMBER.—If one is to “farm the 
forest’’ upon any of our hill farms, it becomes neces¬ 
sary for him to take advantage of all the second 
growth that naturally appears. Any gifts of nature 
should he accepted graciously and developed to the 
best possible advantage. Protect the second growth 
from fire and from grazing. Undesirable kinds of 
trees must be thinned out. as well as any poor indi¬ 
viduals. One does this in a garden without a mur¬ 
mur: one expects to do it in a dairy, as no one wants 
a hoarder cow: however, it is harder to do it in the 
woodlot. because the returns are longer in coming. 
Usually Such thinnings are salable only as cord- 
wood. hut occasionally an operator is able to find 
special markets which will receive them at a good 
price. Workers in rustic furniture will sometimes 
find just what they want among such thinnings, and 
occasionally there is in the neighborhood a man 
who makes bird-houses and can use them to advan¬ 
tage. I knew of one man near a large locomotive 
manufacturing center who sold vast quantities of 
such thinnings to be used in kindling fires under the 
boilers for trial trips of the locomotives. The oppor¬ 
tunities for such disposal will present themselves 
to the man who makes it his business to find a 
ma rket. 
FOREST PLANTING—Most of the areas suit- 
aide for forest development will have to have a good 
deal of forest planting. Each year one or two weeks 
may well be given over to the setting out of small 
pine and spruce trees upon the areas which are in¬ 
tended for ultimate forest production. These trees 
can he secured from the Conservation Commission 
at Albany at the cost of production. Excellent spec¬ 
imens can be secured at. $4 per thousand. There is 
a law, passed two years ago, which provides that 
trees may he secured free of charge for planting 
upon lands which will be dedicated to permanent 
forest production. The application for such trees 
is rather cumbersome, and the applicant, may require 
some aid in filling it out. However, for one who is 
to plant several thousand trees per year it would 
undoubtedly pay to get the trees under these pro¬ 
visions. 
SPACING THE TREES—Ordinarily forest trees 
may be planted to advantage at intervals of 6 ft. 
This- completely covers the area, and within a com¬ 
paratively few years the trees will have grown so 
as to interlace their side branches and drive out all 
competing vegetation. Six-foot spacing is too close 
for final development of the trees, but sufficiently 
close so that it forces them to attain good height 
growth, and accomplishes the natural pruning of 
the side branches. This results in long, clean stems 
and good logs upon those trees which are developed 
to maturity. To plant an acre with trees spaced 
6x6 ft. will require 1,210 trees, and will cost from 
$15 to $25 per acre. 
COST AND RETURNS.—Costs will vary with 
local conditions and with the number of trees which 
are to be planted. After a crew and foreman have 
become proficient in the work the cost may be 
materially reduced, whereas for small plantings it 
may exceed $25 per acre. A white pine plantation 
set out in Michigan 25 years ago now lias trees 
which are approximately S in. in diameter at breast 
height and 45 ft. high, and contains about 
50 cords per acre, or the equivalent of over 
16.000 board feet of lumber per acre. Iu Otsego 
County there is a natural grove of white pine which, 
according to F. B. Du Aloud, its present owner, was 
started from the seed approximately 35 years ago. 
The average diameter of the trees in this area is 
about 8% in. at breast height and the total height 
about 50 ft. There are approximately 470 trees to 
the acre, and they contain nearly 40 cords, or the 
equivalent of nearly 25,000 board feet. It is not 
considered good policy to cut them yet, though some 
of the less desirable trees might lie removed to the 
advantage of those remaining. It. is naturally 
to be supposed that any given area where a forest is 
to lie grown should be protected from fire. Cattle, 
sheep, or even horses, should not be allowed to graze 
indiscriminately over the area. 
WAITING FOR RETURNS.—To develop a well- 
managed forest requires a long time and a long look 
ahead. There is reason, however, to believe that, 
various intermediate returns can be secured to aid 
materially in supporting a family. The better land 
should be retained for a garden and outrivaled in¬ 
tensively. 1 believe that by confining bis efforts to 
intensive cultivation of a few acres of really good 
land the hill farmer can often get as good a return 
for himself as he does by spreading his efforts over 
a great many acres of poor land. It has already 
been suggested that some land should be retained 
to furnish pasture for a team of horses and cattle. 
Besides this, there are other side lines. Bees might 
very well lie kept. This is especially tme if there 
are cultivated fields within reasonably easy reach. 
Even though there may not be, there is always an 
opportunity for a large number of bees to make a 
living from, forest and wild growth. 
OTHER RESOURCES.—The maple syrup and 
sugar industry offers an opportunity for satisfactory 
returns from those portions of the woodlot which 
have a high percentage of maple trees. As a by¬ 
product crop it should not interfere with any of the 
other portions of the work. Plantations of ever¬ 
green trees may be so arranged that within 10 or 12 
years they may be thinned, and a large number of 
the resulting trees sold during the holiday time for 
Christmas greens. These are but a few of the sug¬ 
gestions which come to one who has given the mat¬ 
ter any thought. Certain it is that the opportunity 
for a cash income from a well-managed forest will 
become increasingly more encouraging. To develop 
the “boarder acres’’ of a hill farm into a well-man¬ 
aged forest will require faith and vision, as well as 
hard work and long waiting on the part of the 
owner. But the rapidly decreasing supply of timber, 
and the upward trend of lumber prices, should en¬ 
courage any owner of non-productive land to make 
the effort. o. ir. coelingwood. 
What Silo Shall I Build? 
[Last week, on page 064, the question of an inquirer 
as to best type and size of silo for his needs was dis¬ 
cussed. An additional opinion is given below.] 
Is This Farm Too Small? 
Perhaps it is not just to the point, but I wonder 
if the inquirer is wise in going into dairying on a 
24-acre farm. Dairying is an extensive business, 
and even at best tlie rate of income from it over and 
above expenses is small. With only eight cows the 
income would be quite small, even if all the feed 
were raised on the place. Then 1 rather doubt that 
the inquirer could raise all the feed on the place if 
he depends on pasture in the Summer. Here in 
Jefferson County, which is one of the best counties 
in the State for dairying, it takes two to three acres 
per cow, and with the equivalent of 10 head of cat¬ 
tle there would he only four acres left for crops at 
the lower estimate. If the attempt is made to soil 
the cows, the labor cost is so high that there is no 
profit in the dairy, for it costs more simply to cut 
soiling crops and haul them to the barn than the 
pasturage is worth which furnishes the same amount 
of feed. It is not possible to work the farm with 
less than two horses, at least not to advantage, and 
this makes 12 head for 24 acres, which is stocking 
the place too heavily. 
If M. decides that he still wishes to dairy on this 
place I would advise him to build his silo big enough 
to feed the cows nearly all the year round, assuming 
that he wishes a silo after knowing what the draw¬ 
backs are with a small dairy. If one has only 10 
head to feed, it is difficult to feed fast enough to 
keep the silage from spoiling in warm weather, and 
the silo must be very small in diameter to enable 
the dairyman to keep ahead of the mold. The 
smaller the tub is. the higher the cost per ton of 
capacity. This is because the capacity increases 
with the square of rile diameter, while the amount 
of lumber or other building material increases only 
as the diameter. To make this clear I will give the 
capacity of a 10-ft. silo 2S ft. high, which is 40 tons, 
and that of a 20-ft. silo of the same height, which 
is 160 tons. If both tubs are made of 2-in. material 
we have the following results: 
10-ft. tub 20-l't. tub 
Board feet, of material. 1,900 ft. 2,800 ft. 
Capacity . 40 tons 169 tons 
Board feet, per ton capacity.. 47.5 22.5 
If the lumber is worth $100 per 1,000 ft. it will 
cost you $4.75 per ton capacity in the one case and 
$2.25 in the other. There will he the same propor¬ 
tion in the hoops, and the chute will have to be 
about as large in the one case as the other. Figur¬ 
ing it on the basis of the cost per year per ton of 
silage, and allowing a life of 20 years for the silo, 
and six per cent interest on the money invested, you 
would have to allow about 70 cents per ton for the 
use of the silo for your silage with the small tub 
and 32% cents with the large one Can you get that 
much more for your silage by feeding it to a small 
herd? You can if you have a local market for your 
milk at a high price: in other words, if you have a 
milk route. 
Now as to the type to build and the size. If you 
feed your cattle till May 15 and then start in again 
July 15, which you should do to keep up the flow of 
milk, you will food about 300 days. At 40 lbs. per 
cow. and allowing the three head of young stock as 
equivalent to two mature cows, you would need 60 
tons of silage. If you have a small breed of cows, 
they would not eat 40 lbs., and if your silage is very 
well eared they will not, anyway. Your tub must 
be small with a small number of cattle, not over 12 
ft. diameter, and 10 ft. is better. If you intend to 
feed some green feed, such as corn fodder, you can 
cut the size some; 10x36 ft. would give you the 
right capacity. 57 tons, but a tub of this height is 
likely to blow down if so small in diameter. Two 
10x24-ft. tubs would he better, but a lot more ex¬ 
pensive. I think I should take a chance and make 
the silo 11 or 12 ft.: 12x2S would hold 61 tons re¬ 
filled to the top; 12x30 would hold enough without 
refilling. 
In my opinion the monolithic concrete silos are 
the best, for the money. There are a lot of them in 
this county, and they seem to give good satisfaction. 
They would he pretty expensive, however, for the 
small size, as the men who build them charge a fixed 
price to set up, and then so much per hour for the 
building. That makes the small tub pretty high- 
priced. The charge used to be $1.00 to set up. Tile 
silos are good, but expensive. I have built two 
homemade stave ones, and both have given satis¬ 
faction. The first one was built from hemlock got¬ 
ten out of our own woods. It was not matched. The 
staves, which are 2x6. were dressed four sides, and 
simply toe-nailed together every 3 ft, with 12-penny 
nails. Then the hoops were put on and the whole 
tightened. Silage keeps fully as well in this tub as 
in a matched one. 1’crimps a better way of building 
such a tub is given in United States’ Farmers’ Bulle¬ 
tin 589. Holes are bored half way through the 
staves and the staves spiked together with 30 or 
40-penny spikes, driven into the holes with a drift, 
pin. The only disadvantage to these silos is that a 
staging is needed to pul them up. The second one 
I built is built of matched spruce. 1 had it matched 
at the planing mill, and had two men who under¬ 
stood (he game set it up. When matched no staging 
is needed. Cypress is 1 lit* best lumber for silos, aiul 
if it is to be had at anything like a fair price I 
should prefer it. I’ine is ;ilso good; spruce not quite 
so good. Hemlock is all right if yon can get good 
stuff. Fir and redwood are also said to be good, 
though I cannot say from personal experience. 
Put your silo where it is most convenient to iced 
from, and where at the same time you can drive up 
to it to till. You need not worry much about freezing. 
It will freeze pretty badly sometimes in cold weather, 
but if you take the frozen silage into the stable as 
soon as it loosens from the tub and allow it to thaw, 
feeding it as fast as it thaws, you will not lose 
much, if any. and it will not hurt tlie cows. It is 
only one Winter in three or four that it really 
bothers much, anyway. a. h, de graff. 
