The handbook depicts step-by-step methods and principles on developing agroforestry practices for farmers and woodland owners for the purpose of enhancing the economic and environmental benefits of their farms and woodlands. The handbook is presented in five chapters, one for each agroforestry practice. Chapter topics are: • Introduction • The Basics • Economic Considerations • Further Assistance and information • Success Stories The authors sincerely hope that readers will find this guide to be a useful resource to establish and manage integrated, profitable, healthy and sustainable family farms and woodlands.
"Farm forestry helps farmers in : Marketing timber profitably. Supplying timber for farm needs. Furnishing paying employment during the winter. Making waste lands yield a profit. Increasing the sale value of the farm. Farm forestry means: Improving the woods by the fight kind of cutting. Protecting the woods from fire and other injuries. Utilizing farm timber to the best advantage. Reclaiming gullies and utilizing waste lands by planting forest trees. Keeping the home forest growing at its maximum rate of production. Farm forestry, as a branch of agriculture, is the handling of forest trees and woodlands in such a manner as to increase the income and permanent value of the farm and add to its comvort and attractiveness as a home."--Page [2].
This book is part of an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and comprehensive effort to develop a practical guide to assist under-served and limited resource small farmers and woodland owners to adopt best management technologies in agroforestry. The book depicts step-by-step methods and principles on developing agroforestry practices for farmers and woodland owners for the purpose of enhancing the economic and environmental benefits of their farms and woodlands. It also explains why planning is important in developing agroforestry practices; why larger landscape areas should be considered; describes ways in which conducting landscape assessments can be beneficial for agroforestry; and provides guidelines that may be used for the assessment and planning of agroforestry.
Learn how to fill forests with food by viewing agriculture from a remarkably different perspective: that a healthy forest can be maintained while growing a wide range of food, medicinal, and other nontimber products. The practices of forestry and farming are often seen as mutually exclusive, because in the modern world, agriculture involves open fields, straight rows, and machinery to grow crops, while forests are reserved primarily for timber and firewood harvesting. In Farming the Woods, authors Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be an either-or scenario, but a complementary one; forest farms can be most productive in places where the plow is not: on steep slopes and in shallow soils. Forest farming is an invaluable practice to integrate into any farm or homestead, especially as the need for unique value-added products and supplemental income becomes increasingly important for farmers. Many of the daily indulgences we take for granted, such as coffee, chocolate, and many tropical fruits, all originate in forest ecosystems. But few know that such abundance is also available in the cool temperate forests of North America. Farming the Woods covers in detail how to cultivate, harvest, and market high-value nontimber forest crops such as American ginseng, shiitake mushrooms, ramps (wild leeks), maple syrup, fruit and nut trees, ornamentals, and more. Along with profiles of forest farmers from around the country, readers are also provided comprehensive information on: • historical perspectives of forest farming; • mimicking the forest in a changing climate; • cultivation of medicinal crops; • cultivation of food crops; • creating a forest nursery; • harvesting and utilizing wood products; • the role of animals in the forest farm; and, • how to design your forest farm and manage it once it’s established. Farming the Woods is an essential book for farmers and gardeners who have access to an established woodland, are looking for productive ways to manage it, and are interested in incorporating aspects of agroforestry, permaculture, forest gardening, and sustainable woodlot management into the concept of a whole-farm organism.
The growing of timber on farm land not suitable or not needed for field crops or pasture is now generally recognized as a profitable farm enterprise. Owners of timberland will be interested in the experiences of farmers who by good methods of cutting, using, and marketing, have made their woodlands profitable.
