The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1915-08-19
WOODLOTANDH SCROP
Uncle Sam is Taking a Lively In
terest in This Subject.

In parts of Iowa, it can be said that
the farmers woodlot does not exist
Which Is just so much worse for the
farmer. Many of them still have the
idea that tree is the farmers enemy
and that 1t should be destroyed. BY
and by the farmer will find more
profit in trees than in some of the
crops to which his attention is given
today. In the mean time Uncle Sam
is beginning to call the attention OF
progressive farmers to something that
they have overlooked.
The marketing of farm timber pre-.
sents some of the same difficulties,
but in an aggravated form, that the
farmer meets in selling other crops
says a forest service contribution to
the year book of the department of
agriculture just issued. The farmer
finds it hard to get enough for his
timber. Most farmers now sell their
timber on the stump to a mill man,
such sales ordinarily being made for
a lump sum. The mill man, experienc.
ed in estimating, goes through the
woods and sizes up the quantity and
value OF the timber he wants. The
owner, being a farmer and not lum-
herman, seldom knows anything about
estimating timber and has only the
vaguest idea of what it ought to bring.
The consequence of this condition is
that the farmer often receives only
a small fraction of the actual market
value of his stumpage,
Astonishing examples of what a
farmer may thus throw away are
often encountered by foresters, con-
tinues the article. For instance, a
Massachusetts, farmer sold a million
feet of timber to a portable saw mill
man for $1,000, and thought he had
obtained a good price. His neighbor,
however, who knew something about
timber, got $1,000 for the same guam.
tity of white pine from the very same
portable mill man. The first farmer,
on account of his ignorance, practic.
ally presented the mill man with
$500; the second owner was wise
enough to learn before he attempted
to sell his timber how much he had
and what it ought to bring him in
money.
The productive capacity of the 200
million acres of farm lands through
OuI Iu6 COuhlIS "uAIh SllhSl hdNS Vi
should have timber growing on them
is enormous, says the article. This
area is larger than all the national
forests put together, and with an an.
nual growth of 200 board feet per acre
of saw timber, a moderate allowance
under the practice of Foresight
would produce annually forever about
forty billion feet, or the equivalent of
the entire lumber cut of the country,
in addition to not less than 100 mil
lion cords Of firewood.
These figures continues the article,
probably never will be realized, for
the reason that the present orea of
farm woodlands is much greater than
it will be eventually. For example,
woodland comprises 81 per cent of the
entire farm area of the south, and UNI
dOubtedly much of this land will be
put to other uses than timber grow
ing. Nevertheless the farmers of the
United States now own at least $50
billion feet of saw timber anu / 1-3
billion cords of COrdwOod, and this
timber should produce a substantial
part of their incomes. Farmers ought
to make the most of their timber. and
the public should be interested in this
question for the reason that the vast
aggregate of farm timber should be
available to supplement the other
sources of the general supply.