The farmer in the West has learned by experi ence the benefit of the windbreak, and orchardists have long known its value ; but that crops in fields protected by timber-belts yield better than in unprotected fields, and especially that winter frosts are prevented by such protection, is not fully realized by farmers. By preventing deep freezing of the soil the winter cold is not so much prolonged, and the frequent fogs and mists that hover near forest growths prevent many frosts. That stock will thrive better where it can find protection from the cold blasts of winter and the heat of the sun in summer, is another fact which gives value to the woodlot where stock is kept out.
Experiments have shown that every foot in height of a forest growth will protect one rod in distance, and a series of small timber-belts would produce most favorable farm conditions.
This windbreak benefit, as well as that of regu lating water and soil conditions, is secured by proper location of forest areas. While, therefore, in the first place, soils and situations unfit for farm purposes are to be selected for the woodlot, to secure its bene ficial influences may make other disposition desirable.
Factors in woodlot management.
Choice of specics.—While we speak of a timber crop as one, there is quite as much variety possible in timber crops as in farm crops. Not only are there many different kinds of wood, each possessing distinct qualities and fit for distinct employment, but there are dif ferences of treatment which pro duce differences of result. There are the conifers,—pines, spruces, hemlocks, firs, larch, cedar and the like,—which furnish building ma terials and grow from seed only (with few exceptions), requiring a long time to make suitable size for the purpose for which they are best fitted ; and there are the broad-leaf trees of great variety, hard and soft woods, fit for a variety of purposes, and often becoming available for use sooner than the con ifers, capable of reproduction by sprouting from the stump (coppice) as well as by seed.
Whether it be in the man agement of an established woodlot or the starting of a new plantation, a choice of species and method of treat ment must be made from the first, with the object clearly in view that the crop is to serve.
Limitations as to have started to consider the woodlot as destined, in the first place, to supply domes tic needs of fuel and small-dimen sion material ; but the question may arise whether it could not be managed with a view to supplying the general market. By general market we mean the requirements of sawmills and lumber - yards. Excepting special cases, the far mers' woodlot is not well fitted for the practice of commercial forestry,—the growing of timber for the general market. The reasons for this inapti tude are partly economic, partly based on the natural history of forest-growth, and on silvicultural peculiarities.
Wood is a crop which, unlike other farm crops, does not have a physical maturity indicating the harvest time. This time is a ques tion of decision by the harvester, based on financial considerations, or on considerations of size. Size is ultimately the
basis of financial considerations also, for with increasing size the usefulness and value of the tree increases ; and size is, of course, a question of time. Therefore, by the accretion in diameter and height, the timber crop not only grows in volume annually, but in value also. Practically valueless until, say ten years, it then may begin to be fit for hop-poles, hoop-poles, bean-poles and the like ; at twenty years, not only a larger amount of good fuel wood, but posts and fence-rails may be cut ; at thirty years, in addition, telegraph poles and railroad ties and perhaps some other small-dimension material may be secured ; but to grow logs for mill use we should have to wait twice that time. It would be rare to get satisfactory log sizes before sixty to seventy years, for the sawing of logs of small dimension is wasteful and unprofitable ; for ex ample, the loss in slabs and saw-kerf with logs twelve inches in diameter, under best practice is still over 30 per cent, and of logs eight inches in diameter may be over 60 per cent. And since with most species, on the poorer soils which are to be devoted to the timber crop, even these sizes are not plentiful, though the crop is well tended, the long-time element involved would, in most cases, deter the farmer from engaging in growing saw t imber.
There are also reasons against such a proposi tion, which lie in the nature of forest development and the limitations of the woodlot. If size of the tree is of importance in determining its value and harvest time, size of the area on which forestry is to be practiced is of importance in determining the purpose and method of management. The limited size of the woodlot, say fifty acres at most, if a continuous business with annual harvests of sixty year-old timber were contemplated, would make the annual harvest so small as to appear impracti cable except under special conditions, while an intermittent management, under which larger areas or quantities from period to period are har vested, may find equal objection because of the requirement of the sawmills for assured amounts of annual supply. The growing of log timber in the woodlot, therefore, in most cases will be found impracticable as a business proposition. In addi tion, the usually isolated position of the wood-lot in small patches is inimical to timber-growing. Exposed on all sides to the drying winds, the soil under the older trees standing more open is likely to deteriorate, and not only thereby is the incre ment on the standing timber reduced, but natural regeneration is impeded, and other silvicultural practices are rendered more difficult, unless special pains are taken to preserve a "wind mantle" on the outskirts. Altogether, it will be found in most places impracticable to devote the woodlot to any other purpose than the production of home supplies of fuel and small-dimension material.