560 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



valuable for the piue timber which grows upon them. These reservations should be held as long as possible by the 

 government as a timber reserve. They should not be survej'ed and subdivided except so far as may be uecessarj- 

 for (heir protection, and they should not be offered for sale until some necessity, now unforeseen, arises for their 

 disposal. The 1,000,000,000 feet of pine should be held until the amount for which it can be sold is needed by the 

 Indians, or until a price near its value can be obtained for it. By selling the land now the value of the timber 

 cannot be realized, while the interest of the settlers who may hereafter enter upon the prairies would seem to 

 demand that some reservation of pine should be made for them, if iwssible. The proposition to bring these lauds 

 into market, subject to pre emption and homestead entry, is against the interest of every one except the few worthless 

 tramps and irresponsible i)ersons who may seek to enter and procure a title to these lands ; and even if the land 

 was so open to homestead and pre-emption entry, the aim and purpose of these laws could not be carried out, for 

 no farms will be made nor homesteads improved in this Indian country. 



"The White Earth Indian reservation is largely covered with hard wood, there being no pine upon more than 

 a quarter of its area. The land is desirable for agricultural purposes, and may be utilized for tha settlement of 

 Indians, or under the homestead and pre-emption laws by whites, but the pine lands are unfit for cultivation, and 

 the homesteading or pre-empting of them should not be allowed." 



IOWA. 



Iowa lies within the prairie region. The broad bottom lands along the river of the eastern part of the state 

 once bore heavy forests of broad-leaved trees. Farther west the tree growth was less heavy in the narrower 

 bottoms. All over the state, however, forests lined the streams and often spread, especially in the southwestern 

 counties, over the uplands. Since the first settlement of the state the forest area has increased by the natural 

 spread of trees over ground protected from fire, and by considerable plantations of Cottonwood, maple, and other 

 trees of rapid growth made by farmers to supply fuel and shelter. 



The natural forests have been everywhere largely culled of their most valuable timber, and in spite of their 

 increased acreage are, in their commercial aspect, in danger of speedy extermination. Manufacturers of cooperage 

 stock and others using Iowa timber report great scarcity and general deterioration of stock. 



During the census year 11,017 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $45,470. These fires were largely the result of carelessness in clearing land. 



Iowa is the ninth state in the importance of its lumber-manufacturing interests. It owes its position to 

 numerous large mills situated along the Mississippi river entirely supplied with logs from the pineries of Wisconsin. 

 The amount of Iowa-grown lumber manufactured is insignificant. 



MISSOUEI. 



Southern and southwestern Missouri was originally covered with a dense forest of hard woods, through which 

 in the southern counties extensive areas of the short-leaved piue (Finns mitts), covering gravelly ridges and the low 

 Ozark hills, were common. The northern and western limits of the true forest region may be defined by a line 

 entering the state from the southwest, in the southern part of Jasper county, and passing northeasterly through 

 Dade, Cedar, Saint Clair, Henry, Benton, Morgan, and Cooper counties, and then northward to the borders of the 

 state. West of this line the timber is largely confined to the broad bottom lands, in belts often 2 or 3 miles in 

 width. Farther west these become narrower and less heavily timbered. The extreme northwestern counties, 

 Atchison and Nodaway, are almost destitute of timber. 



The forests of southeastern Missouri still contain great stores of valuable timber, although the best trees Lave 

 ^been cut in the neighborhood of all settlements, and for a distance varying from 5 to 20 miles back from all lines 

 of railroad. This is especially true of the best white oak and of black walnut, once common, but now almost 

 exterminated in all i)art8 of the state. 



Manufacturers of cooperage stock report a growing scarcity of material everywhere, and are now forced to 

 obtain oak from Arkansas and elm ami basswood from the rivers of southern Illinois and Indiana. The further 

 development, however, of the railroad system of southern Missouri will make available for mauufactming pui'poses 

 a large amount of valuable timber now remote from transportation. 



During the census year 783,646 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of 

 $294,865. These fires were traced to careless hunters, to fires set in clearing farming laud, to sparks from 

 locomotives, etc. 



A gratifying improvement in the condition of the forest in the parts of the state first settled has followed the 

 enactment of a fence law preventing the general ranging of stock through the timber-land. A young growth has 

 sprung up among the older trees and along the borders of woodlands protected from browsing animals, and these 

 young forests are valuable in their prospective yield and as an indication of the methods which must be adopted 

 to preserve and perpetuate the forests of the whole Atlantic region. 



