IOWA ACADEMY OP 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 com^ 
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 crush. 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 prevented 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 difficulties and teach our farmers to take a greater inter- 
est in their forests and better care of them. 
