INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS. 9^, 



a region extending from Manitoba and Dakota to Wisconsin and Illinois 

 and in Kansas and Nebraska. * 



In Iowa the want is much feh : 



In this State, t as in others of the prairie region, the timber questiorL 

 arises in the beginning of settlement, and the want of timber products 

 being among the very first that is felt by the emigrant, his attention is 

 naturally directed at once to the subject of supply. The timber belts 

 along water-courses were in very many cases exhausted hi the early years 

 of settlement, and supplies of lumber have been brought in later years 

 from regions further east by railroads. But neither of these sources of 

 supply are sure of indefinite continuance. 



The Standing Committee on Forestry in the Iowa Horticultural. 

 Society in January, 1872,! referring to the change for the worse in the 

 climate of that State since the settlement began, declare it to be within 

 the knowledge of all old residents : 



That a marked change for the worse has taken place within the last 

 twenty years. . . . The only remedy against this great and increasing- 

 evil is tree-planting and wind-breaks. 



The necessity of screening fruit trees in Iowa is thus shown : § 



Timber belts should be planted on the south, west, and north sides. Itr ' 

 was particularly necesssary to shelter trees against the drying southwest 

 winds, which were quite as injurious as those from the northwest, being 

 warmer and more exhausting. 



Prof H. H. McAfee, formerly of the Iowa Agricultural College, 

 remarks || that: 



Prairie farms need shelter most on the west, next on the north, next on 

 the south, while their usefulness on the east is not so great, tJiotigh suffi- 

 cient to call for planting. 



Need of zvind-breaks for the protection of human life. 



A winter ^ seldom passes without deaths from storms on the prairies 

 of the Northwest. 



* In this connection, it would be interesting to study Plate VI of Walker's Statistical 

 Atlas, giving the frequency of storm centers. 



t Report on Forestry by F. B. Hough, U. S. Agricultural Department, 1877, page 551^ 



J Iowa Horticultural Report, 1872, page 133. 



§Prof. H. H. McAfee before the American Forestry Association in Philadelphia, 1876^ 



I Iowa Horticultural Report, 1875, page 292. 



\Y. B. Hough, Report on Forestry. 



