Part 6

The forest cover on the hilltops and steep hillsides which are not fit for cultivation prevents this erosive action of the waters by the same influence by which it increases available water supplies. The important effects of a forest cover, then, are retention of larger quantities of water and carrying them off under ground and giving them up gradually, thus extending the time of their usefulness and preventing their destructive action.

In order to be thoroughly effective, the forest growth must be dense, and, especially, the forest floor must not be robbed of its accumulations of foliage, surface mulch and litter, or its underbrush by fire, nor must it be compacted by the trampling of cattle.

On the gentler slopes, which are devoted to cultivation, methods of underdraining, such as horizontal ditches partly filled with stones and covered with soil, terracing, and contour plowing, deep cultivation, sodding, and proper rotation of crops, must be employed to prevent damage from surface waters.

THE FOREST SUPPLIES THE FARM WITH USEFUL MATERIAL.

All the benefits derived from the favorable influence of forest bolts upon water conditions can be had without losing any of the useful material that the forest produces. The forest grows to be cut and to be utilized; it is a crop to be harvested. It is a crop which, if properly managed, does not need to be replanted; it reproduces itself.

When once established, the ax, if properly guided by skillful hands, is the only tool necessary to cultivate it and to reproduce it. There is no necessity of planting unless the wood lot has been mismanaged.

The wood lot, then, if properly managed, is not only the guardian of the farm, but it is the savings bank from which fair interest can be annually drawn, utilizing for the purpose the poorest part of the farm. Nor does the wood lot require much attention; it is to the farm what the workbasket is to the good housewife--a means with which improve the odds and ends of time, especially during the winter, when other farm business is at a standstill.

It may be added that the material which the farmer can secure from the wood lot, besides the other advantages recited above, is of far greater importance and value than is generally admitted.

On a well-regulated farm of 160 acres, with its 4 miles and more of fencing and with its wood fires in range and stove, at least 25 cords of wood are required annually, besides material for repair of buildings, or altogether the annual product of probably 40 to 50 acres of well-stocked forest is needed. The product may represent, according to location, an actual stumpage value of from $1 to $3 per acre, a sure crop coming every year without regard to weather, without trouble and work, and raised on the poorest part of the farm. It is questionable whether such net results could be secured with the same steadiness from any other crop. Nor must it be overlooked that the work in harvesting this crop falls into a time when little else could be done.

Wire fences and coal fires are, no doubt, good substitutes, but they require ready cash, and often the distance of haulage makes them rather expensive. Presently, too, when the virgin woods have been still further culled of their valuable stores, the farmer who has preserved a sufficiently large and well-tended wood lot will be able to derive a comfortable money revenue from it by supplying the market with wood of various kinds and sizes. The German State forests, with their complicated administrations, which eat up 4 per cent of the gross income, yield, with prices of wood about the same as in our country, an annual net revenue of from $1 to $4 and more per acre. Why should not the farmer, who does not pay salaries to managers, overseers, and forest guards, make at least as much money out of this crop when he is within reach of a market?

With varying conditions the methods would of course vary. In a general way, if he happens to have a virgin growth of mixed woods, the first care would be to improve the composition of the wood lot by cutting out the less desirable kinds, the weeds of tree growth, and the poorly grown trees which impede the development of more deserving neighbors.

The wood thus cut he will use as firewood or in any other way, and, even if he could not use it at all, and had to burn it up, the operation would pay indirectly by leaving him a better crop. Then he may use the rest of the crop, gradually cutting the trees as needed, but he must take care that the openings are not made too large, so that they can readily fill out with young growth from the seed of the remaining trees, and he must also pay attention to the young aftergrowth, giving it light as needed. Thus without ever resorting to planting he may harvest the old timber and have a now crop taking its place and perpetuate the wood lot without in any way curtailing his use of the same.

FARMERS' BULLETINS.

These bulletins are sent free of charge to any address upon application to the Secretary of Agriculture. Washington, D. C. Only the following are available for distribution:

No. 15. Some Destructive Potato Diseases: What They Are and How to Prevent Thorn. Pp. 8. No. 16. Leguminous Plants for Green Manuring and for Feeding. Pp. 24. No. 18. Forage Plants for the South. Pp. 30. No. 19. Important Insecticides: Directions For Their Preparation and Use. Pp. 20. No. 21. Barnyard Manure. Pp. 32. No. 22. Feeding Farm Animals. Pp. 32. No. 23. Foods: Nutritive Value and Cost. Pp. 32. No. 24. Hog Cholera and Swine Plague. Pp. 16. No. 25. Peanuts: Culture and Uses. Pp. 24. No. 26. Sweet Potatoes: Culture and Uses. Pp. 30. No. 27. Flax for Seed and Fiber. Pp. 16. No. 28. Weeds; and How to Kill Them. Pp. 30. No. 29. Souring of Milk, and Other Changes in Milk Products. Pp. 28. No. 30. Grape Diseases on the Pacific Coast. Pp. 16. No. 31. Alfalfa, or Lucern. Pp. 23. No. 32. Silos and Silage. Pp. 31. No. 33. Peach Growing for Market. Pp. 24. No. 34. Meats: Composition and Cooking. Pp. 29. No. 35. Potato Culture. Pp. 23. No. 36. Cotton Seed and Its Products. Pp. 10. No. 37. Katir Corn: Characteristics, Culture, and Uses. Pp. 12. No. 38. Spraying for Fruit Diseases. Pp. 12. No. 39. Onion Culture. Pp. 31. No. 40. Farm Drainage. Pp. 24. No. 41. Fowls: Care and Feeding. Pp. 24. No. 42. Facts About Milk. Pp. 29. No. 43. Sewage Disposal on the Farm. Pp. 22. No. 44. Commercial Fertilizers. Pp. 24. No. 45. Some Insects Injurious to Stored Grain. Pp. 32. No. 46. Irrigation in Humid Climates. Pp. 27. No. 47. Insects Affecting the Cotton Plant. Pp. 32. No. 48. The Manuring of Cotton. Pp. 10. No. 49. Sheep Feeding. Pp. 24. No. 50. Sorghum as a Forage Crop. Pp. 24. No. 51. Standard Varieties of Chickens. Pp. 48. No. 52. The Sugar Beet. Pp. 48. No. 53. How to Grow Mushrooms. Pp. 20. No. 54. Some Common Birds in Their Relation to Agriculture. Pp. 40. No. 55. The Dairy Herd: Its Formation and Management. Pp. 24. No. 56. Experiment Station Work--I. Pp. 30. No. 57. Butter Making on the Farm. Pp. 15. No. 58. The Soy Bean as a Forage Crop. Pp. 24. No. 59. Bee Keeping. Pp. 32. No. 60. Methods of Curing Tobacco. Pp. 10. No. 61. Asparagus Culture. Pp. 40. No. 62. Marketing Farm Produce. Pp. 28. No. 63. Care of Milk on the Farm. Pp. 40. No. 64. Ducks and Geese. Pp. 48. No. 65. Experiment Station Work--II. Pp. 32. No. 66. Meadows and Pastures. Pp. 24. No. 67. Forestry for Farmers. Pp. 48. No. 68. The Black Rot of the Cabbage. Pp. 22. No. 69. Experiment Station Work--III. Pp. 32. No. 70. The Principal Insect Enemies of the Grape. Pp. 24. No. 71. Some Essentials of Beef Production. Pp. 24. No. 72. Cattle Ranges of the Southwest. Pp. 32. No. 73. Experiment Station Work--IV. Pp. 32. No. 74. Milk as Food. Pp. 39. No. 75. The Grain Smuts. Pp. 20. No. 76. Tomato Growing. Pp. 30. No. 77. The Liming of Soils. Pp. 19. No. 78. Experiment Station Work--V. Pp. 32. No. 79. Experiment Station Work--VI. Pp. 28. No. 80. The Peach Twig-borer--an Important Enemy of Stone Fruits. Pp. 10. No. 81. Corn Culture in the South. Pp. 24. No. 82. The Culture of Tobacco. Pp. 23. No. 83. Tobacco Soils. Pp. 23. No. 84. Experiment Station Work--VII. Pp. 82. No. 85. Fish as Food. Pp. 30. No. 86. Thirty Poisonous Plants. Pp. 32. No. 87. Experiment Station Work--VIII. (In press.) No. 88. Alkali Lands. Pp. 23. No. 89. Cowpeas. (In press.)

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Transcriber Note

Illustrations were move so a to prevent splitting paragraphs. Minor typos corrected. Illustrations were obtained from the The Internet Archive and the University of North Texas' USDA Farmers' Bulletins Digital Library.