IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



59 



forty years ago. In its place has appeared a growth of smaller 

 trees, which were saplings when the older trees were 

 destroyed, or have grown from the seed since that time. Here 

 and there may be seen a relic of the first growth — some giant 



of the forest who towers high above all the trees about him 



but, as a rule, the forest of to-day is made up of younger and 

 smaller trees than those which composed the forest of forty 

 years ago. 



The area, however, of the timber land along the streams 

 remains about what it was at an earlier day. It may possibly 

 be a trifle less, but only a trifle. The second growth covers 

 substantially the same area that was covered by the first 

 growth. The chief denudation of the country has come 

 about, not through the destruction of the larger trees which 

 grow along the rivers, but through the removal of the bur oak, 

 hazel, and other prairie species. Before the settlement of the 

 county — if we may trust the accounts of the earliest settlers — 

 a large part of the prairie was covered with t rush. To-day the 

 greater part of the brush is gone and the land upon which it 

 grew is under cultivation. The absence of the brush from the 

 prairie tends to increase erosion and decrease the conservation 

 of moisture in the soil, but its destruction was inevitable 

 because necessary to the successful carrying on of agriculture; 

 and, as conditions grow harder and the land becomes more 

 densely populated and more closely farmed, the destruction 

 of that which is left will become necessary and inevitable. 

 But as the prairie brush is destroyed greater care than ever 

 should be taken to preserve the large and really valuable 

 timber along the rivers, and to extend its area if possible. 

 The people of Adair county have not carelessly destroyed their 

 forests as have the people of many portions of the country. 

 They have preserved them, but it cannot be said that they 

 have preserved them understandingly. The second growth 

 has come in so thick in many places as to choke itself. Valu- 

 able walnut, ash or hickory trees are often j^revented from 

 making a good growth by the thickets of maple, elm or elder 

 in which they grow, and, too often, when the needs of the 

 farmer force him to cut firewood for himself, he takes all the 

 trees from a certain area, instead of cutting out only those 

 which can best be spared and leaving the remainder. A little 

 popular education on the subject of forestry might remedy 

 these difticulties and teach our farmers to take a greater inter- 

 est in their forests and better care of them. 



