58 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The beneficent iniluence of groves upon winds, tempera- 

 ture, moisture and erosion are felt not alone by him who 

 plants or protects trees — they are shared by the entire 

 community. In view of this fact, and in view of the fact 

 that as an immediate money-making investment tree- 

 planting does not pay, some encouragement ought to be 

 given by the state to those who use their lands and money 

 for the preservation and propagation of trees. Laws, 

 of course, will not make trees grow, neither will they teach 

 men how to give intelligent care to them. But laws can 

 be so framed that men will be encouraged to undertake 

 the work of increasing our forest areas without being fined 

 by a tax for efforts which are bringing benefits to the 

 entire community without corresponding adequate material 

 returns to those who are making them. 



Our state is at present wholly without forestry laws. 

 The old law, which has been on the statute books for 

 about a quarter of a century, was omitted by the last code 

 commission, one of the commissioners objecting to it 

 because of the frauds which were practiced under it. 

 Amendment and not repeal should have been the remedy. 

 Experience proved that this old law was weak in many 

 respects. No restrictions were placed on the kinds of 

 trees to be planted, with the result that perhaps 90 per 

 cent of the trees planted in the prairie sections of the 

 state were undesirable cottonwoods, box elders, soft 

 maples and willows. The law did not sufficiently define 

 the care that should be taken of the trees, and the result 

 was a widespread neglect of the groves. It provided an 

 exemption of $100 per acre for ten years for forest trees, 

 and $50 per acre for five years for fruit trees. No 

 encouragement was offered for the protection of the forest 

 trees after the ten years had passed, with the result that 

 in many places the old groves were cut away and new 

 ones were set out. The law should have provided not only 

 for the planting of new groves, but for the care and pro- 

 tection of old artificial and native groves. The exemption 

 was sufficiently large to tempt some men owning unim- 



