718 IOWA DEARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
We are warned of a timber famine and the warning has come none too 
soon. 
While distant portions of the earth, such as the Philippine Islands, the 
Amazon valley and portions of Africa, still have a surplus of timber, the 
Mississippi valley has a deficit which is yearly growing greater. It is this 
fact which so vitally concerns the Iowa farmer. 
Many contend that, owing to the numerous substitutes for wood, the 
demand for that commodity will steadily diminish and finally cease al- 
together. Such is not the case. It is an undeniable fact that the demand 
for wood is increasing every year despite the extensive use of the substi- 
tutes. More wood is now used than ever before. Steel, iron, concrete, 
cement nor any other material can supplant wood in many of its uses. 
These substitutes may be hard and durable and free from insect and fun- 
gus attacks, but still they are heavy, break quite easily, are seriously af- 
fected by heat and cold, cost a great deal more and utterly lack the elas- 
ticity of wood. 
But where is the necessary timber to come from? Practically all of 
the eastern states have been stripped of their forests. Little is left ex- 
cept large areas of charred stumps, and scattering saplings or sprouts 
where once stood vast forests. Nature has very kindly created new 
forest growth in many places of the east and south where the ravaging 
hand of man has wrought destruction. Many of the abandoned farms 
of those states have young tree growth w^ell started. The old plantations 
of the south, rendered desolate by the civil war, have a new stand of 
long leaf pine upon them. 
As yet these trees are too small to cut for lumber. For the present, 
the farmer must depend upon the Pacific states. The tall Oregon pines 
and white cedars must respond to the demand. But the cost of transporta- 
tion coupled wath the increased demand and unreplenished supply is cer- 
tain to boost prices. 
low^a land is too high in price to profitably turn large tracts into for- 
ested districts. High as lumber may be, the returns from forests cut forty 
to eighty years hence on land now worth sixty or eighty dollars an acre 
would never meet the interest on the capital invested. 
Still there is much land in the state that should be planted to timber. 
This is mainly the rough sections along bluffs and waterways, and the 
steep clayey hillsides which have been eroded until cultivation does not 
pay. Such lands should be put in forests and kept that way because 
they are of little agricultural value and because primarily, some forested 
areas are essential in every section. 
Forests are great soil formers and rene\vers. In rocky regions a tree 
starts in the barren soil, sends its roots down into the rock crevices, 
loosens and penetrates the soil in every direction and subjects it to the 
action of the water and bacteria which enrich it. The tree prevents 
washing by holding the soil with its roots, renders the ground porous, 
adds humus year after year and finally converts a barren, sterile land in- 
to a rich, productive one. Forests hold the snows in winter and act as 
a sponge to absorb the water which is precipitated at all seasons. One 
of the most serious problems in the east has arisen because the forests 
