The Woodlot
A simple program that will help keep your woods in good condition, and provide firewood and some lumber, from the Have-More Plan.
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Originally, our house was located in the midst of two acres of woods. As we've cleared our land, we've had plenty of firewood.
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It's a good idea to have an acre or so of woods. Just the dead and fallen timber will give you about a cord of wood per acre each year for your fireplace - and some fence posts too. Maybe you can harvest some lumber - it's much cheaper to haul it to a local sawmill than it is to buy lumber these days. About 6 months of exposure to sun and air is necessary to dry green lumber.
A woodlot is little trouble. Here is a simple program that will help you keep your woods in good condition and at the same time provide you with firewood and some lumber:
1.) Fence out livestock. They eat saplings, injure young roots, cause erosion, and in time can ruin a woodlot.
2.) Take all diseased or down trees for firewood. 3.) Practice thinning. This simply means cutting out the weed trees and "crowders" so the good lumber trees will grow faster. It should be done about every two years. Save what you cut out for fenceposts bean poles, etc. 4. ) Prune off excess branches on lumber trees to prevent knots. Save these branches for firewood. Learn to recognize your valuable lumber trees, and mark them with a band of white paint. 5.) Harvest every lumber tree before it becomes overage. You should learn the proper size tree to cut. Government studies show a 9 inch maple will bring only 1/36 of the price paid for a 26 inch maple. The profitable way to sell is to make the cutting yourself and haul the logs to the mill. 6.) Plant seedlings in any bare patches you find in your woodlot. Trees will grow in the poorest possible soil where no crops can be grown.
7.) If your trees are attacked by blight, disease, or insects, ask advice from your State Forester, or County Agricultural Agent.
8.) Protect your woods from fire!
For construction on your place you can hire (or borrow) a portable sawmill to come to your woodlot and saw up lumber trees there. This will be a lot cheaper than buying lumber. Whatever you do, never cut an entire stand of trees. Leave at least 5 large seedproducing trees per acre, and plenty of saplings and younger trees.
Fence Posts
Soft woods such as willow, soft maple, beech, and box elder will last only 3 to 5 years in the ground as fence posts. But you can make them last 20 to 25 years by boiling the lower ends in a steel drum of creosote. Let them cool in a second drum of creosote for best results.
