chopping trees vrs improving

Usually when i am improving a tile i chop down the forest first to get the bonus then put down the farm, or whatever i want. I noticed last night that when i went to put down a farm without having chopped down the forest it said something like, creating a farm will chop down the forest.

Does this mean i dont need to chop first and that just buy putting down the farm that i get the chopped forest bonus to production?

thanks

Yes, but chopping first gets you the bonus more quickly as you don't have to wait for the farm to be finished.

That was true in Civ 4, Olson, but it seems to have changed now in Civ 5 to where just clicking build improvement is exactly the same as clicking to chop the forest unless you are pre-chopping to save production for later.

What wioneo said. The worker first chops the forest, yields the extra production and then starts building the actual improvement.

On a similar note - I very rarely build lumber mills - at least until that mid-game tech arrives boosting the output of lumber mills - or if it's forest on a tundra hex.

I find the initial 20 hammers for chopping the forest make a big difference to how soon you can get the early building improvements - Granary, Great Library etc. going especially given how low your production is early levels.

So, if it's a Grassland or Plains tile that is covered in forest, it gets chopped and turned into a mine (if it's a hill tile with no access to fresh water) or farm. Sometimes i just chop it and move on to the next hex - if my city is too small to work any more tiles yet, i have my workers chop all the forest within 5 hexes of the city if i'm building something time critical. Helps ranged/mounted units pick off attacking enemy melee units too.

The only time I leave forests unchopped are if it's in a Tundra tile. Otherwise, down it goes, because I need farmland.

My own tactic which works well for me:

Forest on a fresh water hill: Chop & Farm

Forest on a non-fresh water hill: Low priority; the tile itself will probably not get worked until around Scientific Theory. I tend to Lumber mill these (1 food instead of 0)

Forest on flat plains with fresh water: Chop & Farm.

Forest on flat plains without fresh water: Low priority; the tile itself will probably not get worked until around Fertilizer. I'll probably chop it earlier just for the free hammers with no yield change.

Forest on flat tundra with fresh water: Chop & Farm; but lower priority than other fresh water tiles.
Forest on flat tundra without fresh water: Low priority; Lumbermill.

Forest on grassland with fresh water: If the city needs more food, chop & farm. Otherwise lumbermill for ongoing hammers.

Forest on grassland without fresh water: Low priority. Lumbermill.

My absolute favorite: trapping resource (truffles are best) in a forest on a plains tile -- chopping yields pure hammers, with no change to tile yield.