ARSORICULTURE 



315 



IOWA TIMBER TREES. 



In tl.e western portion of Iowa there 

 are considerable bodies of inferior 

 limber upon .^ome of the higher hills 

 and some narrow fringes along the 

 streams. 



How certain tracts of wood lands oc- 

 cur in prairie regions, or rather why 

 such areas are prairie, is frequently 

 a-ked. The only reply which can be 

 made is — fire. 



The Indians who annually burned the 

 country over, primarily to drive the 

 game into ambush, thus destroyed the 

 3^ounj timber and prevented the form- 

 ation of forests. Along the moist val- 

 leys, borders of streams and marshy 

 tracts, the dead grass was moist 

 enough to check the advance of the 

 flames, while upon rocky hillsides poor- 

 er tracts, high rolling prairies and on 

 fa^'orite feeding grounds of the buf- 

 falo, where the grass was kept crop- 

 ped ver}' close or naturally made little 

 growth, the fires were not of suffici- 

 ent heat to destroy the brush, and 

 here timber has grown. 



Trees Not Valuable. 



About Red Oak and over much of 

 Western Iowa the trees are very short- 

 bodied and low in stature. While the 

 efifect of constant winds is to induce 

 low, stubby growths, still this is by 

 no means the only cause of Iowa's in- 

 ferior timber crowth. Much of this 

 timber is post oak, a semi-dwarf va- 

 riety which under no condition would 

 equal the red oak of the Middle States 

 in n agnitude of tree. Accident caused 

 the distribution of acorns which can 

 only produce small trees. At the same 

 time the abundance of w-illows 

 ard Cottonwood is due to the small, 

 downy seeds which are produced In 

 such immense numbers and are blown 

 by the winds to every portion of the 

 west. Only the seeds which alight in 

 moist lands can take root — all others 

 perirh. 



The avernge bight of trees here is 

 but ^hirty to forty-five feet, few at- 

 taining to more than forty feet, and 

 trunks ten to eighteen feet only, and 



these not of large size. 

 Remedy. 



If the farmers of Iowa. Nebraska 

 and other prairie states would plant 

 seeds, nuts or trees of large-growing 

 trees and give them proper protec- 

 tion, cultivating the young trees until 

 they have become established, then the 

 character of this timber may become 

 immensely improved. 

 Compared with Mountains of Ken- 

 tucky. 



The rough mountains of Eastern 

 Kentuck}' and East Tennessee are not 

 very dissimilar in soil to that of the 

 western portion of Iowa, a reddish 

 day, with more or less stone contained. 

 The rain fall is no greater and most 

 of tUe Avater runs ofif, so that the soil 

 does not absorb as much as does that 

 of Iowa. The elevation being greater, 

 offsets the climatic difference and 

 temperature. Yet the white oak, chest- 

 nut oak, true red oaks, tulip trees, 

 cedar, etc., are of normal bight 80 to 

 120 feet, and of ample size for profit- 

 able milling. 



The only explanation of the dif- 

 ference in the timbers is the accidental 

 dropping of dwarf-growing oak, etc., 

 in Iowa. 



Legislation. 



If the legislative bodies of the 

 various prairie states will give 

 proper encouragement to the land 

 owners by reduction of taxation 

 upon timber lands and aid by distribu- 

 tion of seeds and through the experi- 

 ment stations and Agricultural col- 

 leges, give to the people suitable in- 

 structions and literature, very much 

 good may be accomplished for the 

 states. 



Timber growth in eastern Iowa is of 

 entirely difTerent character and much 

 larger trees. 



In the middle states the hight of 

 trees formerly ranged from one hun- 

 dred to a hundred and fifty-feet, with 

 diameter from three to seven feet. The 

 tree- remaining are the cullings and 

 are Is'^s imposing. There is no good 

 reason for trees being of low stature 

 other than that given. 



