12 FUTURE FORESTRY IN IOWA 



its range probably ranks first among coniferous trees for arti- 

 ficial forest production, mainly because of its relative rapidity of 

 growth and the many uses to which the lumber from this tree is 

 put. The white pine is only one of many trees among the ever- 

 greens and hardwoods which could be used successfully on this 

 type of land. 



A third class of land which might be profitably used for com- 

 mercial forest purposes is the sandy stretches and other soils 

 of poor quality which are not suited to the production of agricul- 

 tural crops. These lands in Iowa are of relatively small extent. 

 Experimental plantings are demonstrating that numerous conif- 

 erous trees will thrive on these poor soils. 



Another type of land which ranks next to the first class men- 

 tioned in possibilities for forest production, consists in those 

 areas along the water courses of the State which are inundated 

 &t certain seasons of the year and which, for this reason, are of 

 little value for agricultural crop production. The exact extent 

 of lands of this kind in Iowa is not known, but it is quite cer- 

 tain that the acreage would total possibly hundreds of thousands 

 of acres. This class of land would include the larger islands 

 of a permanent character found in the large rivers bordering 

 the State. It is known that the river bordering one county of 

 the State has, in islands alone, fifteen to seventeen thousand 

 acres, which are valuable only for timber production and pasture. 

 Much of this land is now timbered with somewhat inferior species, 

 due to the culling over of the land for the best trees. In the 

 aggregate, the possibilities of forest production on lands of this 

 character are enormous. The lands in their present condition 

 are, in certain cases, producing good returns with no care and 

 absolutely no protection against stock and fire. Iowa fortunately 

 possesses trees of rapid growth which reach their optimum devel- 

 opment on low land of this kind. Notable among these is the 

 common cottonwood, a tree of extreme rapidity in growth and 

 one which will be given more and more consideration as time 

 goes on. Investigations in the State by the Experiment Station 

 have shown that a production of from thirty to fifty thousand 

 board feet per acre can be produced in cottonwood plantations 

 on a rotation of thirty to forty years. Already industries have 

 sprung up which are using only timber from land of this char- 

 acter, not only as a passing source of income but with the idea 



