558 Forestry Quarterly. 



erally in the business for the purpose of working up and dis- 

 posing of an abundance of material that is seeking a market, but 

 rather to supply a market which is active in its demands. Iowa 

 manufacturers of wood products sell largely to home people. 



"Less than three per cent, of the lumber and logs used grow 

 in the state. Iowa is an interesting battleground between the 

 southern, western, and lake states manufacturers of lumber, 

 and is so situated territorially that it receives competitive bids 

 from regions on all sides. It draws also from a wide range of 

 species as table I shows. Freight rates from the extreme west 

 to Iowa are not prohibitively above rates from the extreme south. 

 The result is that very interesting competition has developed be- 

 tween certain species of wood for certain purposes. For example, 

 though the average price of redwood in Iowa is about $io above 

 the price of cypress, yet the California wood is so easily handled 

 in the factory and is so free from defects that many establish- 

 ments are willing to pay the difference in price. Redwood makes 

 a very attractive appearance in a number of commodities, such 

 as dairymen's and apiarists' supplies, tanks, silos and general 

 mill work. Possibly the western sawmill men are shipping into 

 the state a carefully selected stock, but however that may be, 

 redwood is increasing in favor even with the heavy handicap 

 in price. The quantity of cypress bought in 191 1 by Iowa manu- 

 facturers, however, was nine times that of redwood. In the same 

 way, Douglas fir from Washington and longleaf pine from 

 Louisiana meet in active competition in Iowa wood-working fac- 

 tories. The southern wood is purchased in considerably larger 

 amounts, but the fir is higher in price, and there is not much 

 difference in the total cost. 



"Though from a lumbering standpoint, Iowa is properly classed 

 as a nonproducing territory, probably 25 per cent, or more of 

 the raw material it consumes reaches the factories in log form. 

 This is due to the fact that Minnesota forests supply a large 

 amount of the pine by rafting it down the Mississippi to the 

 large manufacturing establishments at Davenport, Dubuque and 

 Keokuk. One establishment alone receives annually 18,000,000 

 board feet in log form. These mills, however, which depend on 

 the rivers to bring them logs from the northern forests report 

 a gradual decrease in the supply of logs in recent years. The 

 falling off in river shipments is due to the activities of the rail- 



