556 FOREST CULTURE IN 10 WA. 



Encouragement of forestry hy the Iowa State Horticultural Society. 



This society, in 1872, began to offer premiums to encourage tree- 

 planting, and it has for the hist four years printed annually, for gratui- 

 tous distribution among planters, a pamphlet^ containing instructions 

 for procuring, storing, and planting of seeds, cuttings, and plants, with 

 hints on best species and varieties, modes of culture, &c., for artificial 

 forests and shelter-belts in that State. 



The importance of this subject has been also frequently discussed for 

 many years, as well in the public journals as by speakers at agricul- 

 tural and horticultural fairs, so that it may be truly said of Io^Ya that 

 no State in the Union has so generally been awakened to the importance 

 of tree planting. In fact, the great prairies needed no argument to 

 prove the desirability of planting:, as well for fences and fuel as for 

 shelter and ornament. The statistical result of these labors will be 

 found on another page in this volume. Some of the practical sugges- 

 tions of the Annual, which appear to be of more general interest, are 

 here given : 



Shelte}--helf8. 



These are -wind-breaks for the shelter of domestic animals and crops, and their ad- 

 vantages are set forth by Judge C. E. Whiting, one of the committee charged with the 

 preparation of the Annual, from his own experience (perhaps the most extensive of 

 any person in the country in this branch of forestry) as follows: 



'"' I have, in belts around my fields, varying from single to twenty rows of trees, mostly 

 planted 4,356 to the acre, about 40 acres of timber. The trees in these belts vary as to 

 time of planting ; some are eighteen years old and some only one year planted ; the 

 greater portion, however, are from five to twelve years of age. The needed thinninp; 

 of these belts furnishes all the wood that is wanted on the farm, including stakes and 

 rails to keej) the fences in repair, posts for all repairs needed, and many for new fences 

 I annnally build in extending my farm. When my walnuts get a little larger I will 

 have all 1 need and many for sale. There is not a stick of needed timber on the farm, 

 from a pea-brush, a grapevine-stake, or a binding-pole, up to a fair-sized saw-log, that 

 cannot be had from my groves, without cutting a single tree that does not need thin- 

 ning out from the groves. 



"About five miles of my timber belts are so planted that I have commenced using the 

 standing trees for fence-posts. Where a tight fence is not needed, with the use of the 

 barbed wire, and a little change in the staple, the use of these live posts is a perfect suc- 

 cess. Strongly and urgently as I have hereti fore advocated the planting of thick belts of 

 timber around our fields, each year but coutirmsmo in the opinions then expressed. The 

 laud that remains will, year after year, produce larger and more certain crops than the 

 whole field would produce without such protection. I also repeat that, in spite of all the 

 learned discussions and scientific theoiizing in regard to the cause of our tiuiberless 

 prairies, our cultivated forest trees, year after year, grow right along, with immense 

 rapidity, in blissful ignorance of all tlie reasons why ihty should not grow." 



The species of trees used in shelter-belts, either on the farm boundaries to the north 

 and west, or to the north and west of dwelling, barns, orchard, garden, &c., will de- 

 pend greatly on the position of the homestead as to soil and location in the State. The 

 settler absolutely without tree-shelter wishes naturally to reach results as quickly aa 

 possible. Fortunately, the willow, the cottonwood, the silver poplar, and the box- 

 elder are all very easy to propagate; as noted in speaking of varieties, are all wonder- 

 fully rapid in growth under good cultivation, and, above all, are perfectly hardy, even 

 in the northwestern part of the State. Taking all things into consideration, it is best 

 to put these rampant growers on the outside of belts, adding from year to year the 

 varieties like elm, ash, black cherry, honey-locust, the evergreens, &c., as time and 

 means permit, inside of the iron-clad vanguards placed on the outside. The rapid- 

 growing soft woods, starting readily from cuttings, are the most available for urgent 

 present needs, and the novice in tree-planting is more certain of success with them in 

 his first efforts than with rooted plants of the slower-growing but more valuable 

 timbers. Besides, cuttings cost nothing usually, and are readily obtainable. We 

 append notes on managing cuttings ia this connection, as these trees are most fre- 

 quently used in shelter-belt plantations. 



1 Forestry Annual of the Iowa Horticultural Society. Four numbers of this have been 

 published, beginning in 1874. The pamphlet for lb77 embraces 2\ pages. 



