COOPERATIVES AND SMALL WOODLANDS

ALLEN W. BRATTON.

Seventy-six cooperatives in 26 States have attempted to solve some or all of the problems of growing, harvesting, processing, marketing, and purchasing forest products. Mostly they have been small, local organizations. Thirty have handled forest products as the major part of their business. Pulpwood, logs, fence posts, fuel wood, and Christmas trees are the products most frequently handled. Two cooperatives have processed and marketed maple products exclusively, and one has dealt with naval stores.

Not all of the 76 cooperatives are now in existence. Several failed. Not more than one in every four is active and is following its original objectives. A few, established to serve a special and temporary service, have done the job and wound up their businesses. Several are inactive; their services may be less important now to their members than when markets were harder for individuals to find.

Some of the forest-product cooperatives, the pioneers, have contributed to better forest practices. They are establishing invaluable patterns for future organizations that are bound to spring up. In that they are marketing or purchasing or service groups, they follow generally the pattern of agricultural cooperatives, which, it is estimated, handle about one-fifth of the products sold by farmers and about one-sixth of the farmers' expenditures for supplies and equipment, and which number more than 10,000, have more than 5 million members, and do a volume of business of over 6 billion dollars a year.

The problems that the forest cooperatives have tried to solve develop from the smallness of the small woodland, which, as a rule, produces only a part of its owner's income. It is usually cut-over at long intervals when there happens to be a chance for a cash sale. Most of the owners have acquired no real knowledge of forest management. They tend to assume that the growth of trees, like the succession of the seasons, is something they can do nothing about. The woodland now does not produce enough income to justify much effort in trying to find out how to manage it. Owners have cut whatever happened to grow on the land whenever they needed money or considered the woodland ready to cut once or twice in a lifetime. More and more of their time has gone elsewhere, and many of them have lost the skills of the woodsman. Much antiquated equipment is still in use because modern logging devices are too expensive for small owners to buy and operate for their small logging jobs.

Nearly all woodland owners are occasionally faced with the problem of marketing products from their lands. Though they may cut timber for posts, poles, fuel wood, and lumber, it is rare that surpluses do not develop, especially in the managed woodlands. Hardwoods may be abundant where softwoods are needed, or only fuel-wood material where sawlogs are needed for lumber. Specialized knowledge and training are required to market well the products of the forest.

The very fact that small quantities are produced places the seller at a disadvantage, particularly in producing sawlogs and pulpwood that are normally marketed in large volume. The owner whose woodlands represent a relatively minor factor in his total business cannot be an expert in marketing forest products. If the highly useful service of local sawmills in custom sawing special items is not available, the woodland owner must sell his logs and purchase the needed lumber or other products at retail. To farmers, this is not an unusual experience, for they have long purchased supplies at retail and sold products at wholesale. Agricultural cooperatives have been making changes in practices, however.

The forest-products cooperatives generally may be grouped as branches and subsidiaries of large agricultural cooperatives, cooperative stores, marketing associations, processing cooperatives, special-purpose cooperatives, and organizations that function as cooperatives.

SEVERAL LARGE agricultural cooperatives handle forest products. Most of them are purchasing organizations that supply farmers with lumber, posts, boxes, and crates for agricultural products. Large-scale purchasing and in some cases manufacture of agricultural containers by the cooperative mean savings to members.

The large cooperatives should be able to contribute much toward the advancement of forestry. They can short-cut many difficulties faced by small local cooperatives because of their financial stability, established educational programs, wide geographic coverage, lower management costs, and simplified organization procedures. Those characteristics strongly favor the larger, established cooperatives; many of the small independent forest cooperatives have failed for want of them.

Branches and subsidiaries of large cooperatives have some disadvantages. Forest management, to be scientific and entirely practical, requires special training and experience. That is not always given proper consideration by those responsible for the policies and business of large cooperatives concerned only in a minor way with forest products. Not all of the members of the large agricultural cooperatives are likely to be forest-land owners and directly interested in that part of the business the dilution of interest on the part of both management and members weakens the forestry program.

Most cooperatives have not had a firm policy in regard to conservative cutting practices. The result has been to continue and even accelerate the usual short-sighted methods of exploitation where good markets develop.

A large agricultural cooperative that has made progress toward improving forest practices is the Farmer's Federation of Asheville, N. C. It is a dual-purpose marketing and purchasing cooperative. In 1930, it established a forest-products department and then opened a log yard at each of its 17 warehouses. It has marketed as much as 1,000 carloads of forest products a year. The three objectives of its forest program are : To obtain agreement from all landowner-operators to give full cooperation to State and National agencies in fire prevention and suppression and to adopt cutting practices based on sustained annual yields; to get the same agreement with operators who are not the landowners (often financed and otherwise assisted by the association) ; and to introduce improved methods of cutting, logging, and manufacture of timber products to obtain the maximum utilization.

The forest-products department has handled logs, posts, pulpwood, tannin-extract wood, chemical wood, cross ties, poles, and lumber. Concentration yards make possible the accumulation of truck and carload units for market.

The Farmer's Federation has been successful in its program of forest-management education. It has worked closely with public foresters and has sponsored forward-looking programs.

COOPERATIVE STORES are independent associations that, incidentally to other business, sell forest products for members and, at times, for nonmembers. They have not concerned themselves with the methods used in harvesting forest products. They have obtained better prices for members than individuals could command, but the results have been overcutting and liquidation of the forest resource.

The Rock Cooperative Co., Inc., of Rock, Mich., was organized in 1913 to sell agricultural products and to buy merchandise. Later the cooperative also undertook to market forest products and to do processing. The venture was successful in marketing agricultural products. The forest products were marketed satisfactorily, but because no plan was made to provide for sustained-yield management, the cooperative has virtually cut itself out of forest products. The cooperative sold $265,613 worth of logs and pulpwood in 1930, but sales in 1943, a war year, were only $21,000.

THE INDEPENDENT marketing cooperative is the type most frequently organized. Such cooperatives have been formed primarily for collective marketing of the forest products produced by members who are encouraged to follow approved logging and forestry practices.

They have enjoyed a degree of success in getting forestry practiced by members. The degree has been limited because none of the cooperatives has reached an impressive proportion of the woodland owners in the area it serves. Such a cooperative has the advantage of low cost of organization and operation. Members usually have a unity of purpose as a local organization, dealing with a few similar products and problems.

The small independent forest cooperatives have found the going rough in times of good markets for stumpage. In such periods, the strong stimulus of a marketing service has been needed less. Because they are small, they often lack financial stability and cannot afford the services of a skilled, full-time manager. They find it difficult to maintain interest of members during periods between timber harvests. Several have been organized without adequate preparation. Not all of the small associations that are now inactive have failed. Several have suspended operations during the period when markets are good enough to make this service of less current interest. These dormant associations expect to operate again "when times are right."

This type of cooperative will probably continue to be the most popular in this country. It should be pointed out, however, that the success of the small forest cooperative is sensitive to the degree of knowledge its members have of its objectives and their appreciation of the value of sound forest management; and it depends on their willingness to participate actively in the work of the cooperative.

The West Virginia Forest Products Association, for example, was established in 1937 to furnish complete forest-management service to its members, many of whom are nonresidents. The association has tried to relieve owners of the many responsibilities of forest-land ownership, and especially the technical aspects of managing forest lands. The services offered include inventorying, marking and selling timber, and supervising cutting operations. Intensive management practices are followed and cutting is based upon sustained-yield principles. The association has made a healthy growth. During the year ended October 1945, the cooperative managed 30,000 acres of forest land bearing 100 million board feet of timber. It sold more than a million feet of saw timber at a fee of about $1 per thousand. Plans for the future include the ownership of some manufacturing equipment a trend also noted in other marketing cooperatives that have established themselves.

FEW ATTEMPTS have been made to organize cooperative associations that would provide the members with processing facilities as well as with technical forestry service and assistance in marketing. Such, however, are the services offered by the largest and oldest forest cooperative.

Processing cooperatives have several advantages. The ownership of a plant and equipment provides a focal point of interest. Manufacturing profits that usually go to an independent processor are retained by the association. Scaling and grading practices, designed to give members a fair return for products, can be easily adopted. The volume of business makes the use of modern equipment possible with the result that high-quality products can be manufactured efficiently. Members find it possible to buy materials they need for their own use readily and at savings. Raw products can be exchanged for needed materials and the development of markets for all sizes and qualities of material results in better forest use.