10 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
IOWA TREE PRESERVATION . 
State Forestry Law Proposed by the Forestry Association —Would 
Encourage Planting of Fruit as Well as Forest Trees — 
Endorsement by Treasurer of State Horticultural 
Society — Regulations as to Reservations. 
At the initial meeting of the Iowa Park and Forestry Asso¬ 
ciation in Des Moines, last month, President Macbride presid¬ 
ing, B. Shimek, C. A. Mosier and Elmer Reeves reported a bill 
to be urged on the coming General Assembly providing for 
the encouragement of tree planting in Iowa. It provides that 
upon any tract of land in the state the owner or owners may 
select a permanent forest reservation not less than two acres 
in continuous area, or a forest tree reservation of not less than 
one acre in area, or both; a forest reservation to contain not less 
than 160 growing forest trees per acre; one-fifth of the trees shall 
not be removed in any one year; a fruit tree reservation shall 
contain not less than ninety fruit trees; cattle, horses, mules, 
sheep, goats and hogs shall not be allowed to pasture on these 
reservations until the trees reach a diameter o-f four inches; 
forest tree reservations shall be assessed on a taxable value of 
$1 per acre; if used for a pasture, at half the full taxable 
value. It is not determined, as yet, whether the auditor of 
state or a newly created officer should have charge of the 
business. It is contemplated that the officer who has it in 
charge shall appoint deputies who will serve without pay. 
“ I am strictly in favor of the proposition of the Iowa Park 
and Forestry Association to pass a law encouraging the grow¬ 
ing of trees in this state,” said former Treasurer W. M. Bom- 
berger of Shelby county of the State Horticultural Society, to 
a representative of the Iowa State Register, “ but it will have to 
provide some limit to the number of acres the fruit men may 
reserve exempt from taxation. This was the difficulty with 
the old law. It did not limit the acreage of exempted 
orchards. The result was that in some of the counties in 
Southwestern Iowa it was impossible to secure enough revenue 
to run the schools, even because so much of the land was 
exempt from taxation under that law. If the number of acres 
is limited, as it should be, there can be no difficulty in passing 
and enforcing the law, and it will prove of great benefit to the 
people. 
“ The good agricultural land of this state can not raise trees 
to a profit; but the thousands of acres of poor land, hill-sides, 
low land, etc., can be put to that use profitably, in my opinion. 
I think experience has demonstrated these two facts. A law 
which will exempt forest tracts and certain acreages of fruit 
trees from taxation will give a stimulus to an industry which will 
give us untold benefits continuously after ten years. It is esti¬ 
mated that all of the timber will be gone in forty or fifty years, 
and then the people who want timber or use it will have to buy 
it instead of cutting it for nothing from government lands as 
to-day. Then the man and the state that has timber to sell 
will be wealthy Besides that a grove or forest pays for itself 
and a handsome profit as it goes along, in fence posts, tele¬ 
phone poles, stove wood, etc.” 
The legislative committee of the State Horticultural Society 
is: Eugene Secor of Forest City, Silas Wilson of Atlantic, 
W. M. Bamberger of Harlan, C. L. Watrous of Des Moines 
and Prof. H. E. Summers of Ames. 
SHARE CROP ORCHARDS. 
Among the many interesting things developed during the 
past season, bearing upon the fruit industry, is the final out¬ 
come of those who have set out apple and peach orchards on. 
what is called the “share crop plan,” says the Arkansas Fruit 
Grower. A great many farmers in North Arkansas set out 
orchards on this plan several years ago and this season the 
nurserymen came around for their share of the fruit. At the 
time the trees were furnished, the farmer contracted to let the 
nurserymen have a certain share of the fruit, and was more 
than anxious to set an orchard on these terms. He figured 
that he was not able to pay for the trees, the nursery would 
furnish the trees free of charge, he could well afford to divide 
the fruit for a certain period, after which time the orchard 
would be all his own. 
The nursery furnished the trees against the work of the 
farmer caring for them, and as the nursery makes the heaviest 
investment or outlay it appears perfectly natural that they 
should share in the enterprise. The farmers are never urged 
into these deals. It is usually after earnest solicitation that 
the nurseryman is induced to furnish trees on such terms and 
that after he sees there is no chance to sell the trees to the 
party wanting to set an orchard. 
But the past season was trying on the farmer’s integrity. 
He beheld his trees loaded with fruit. Some one bushel, some 
five bushels and ten bushels per tree. The nurseryman calls 
and demands the fruit, which is in strict harmony with the 
contract. This he cannot deny, but he begins to compare the 
crop of .fruit with the small sum for which he could have 
bought the trees some six or eight years previous. After he 
has figured it all out and sees that he would have been a few 
hundred dollars ahead, if he is an honest man he will say, “ I 
see where I could have saved something by paying cash for the 
trees, but I didn’t have the cash and I am willing to stick to 
the contract.” But it is not every farmer who can look at it 
in that light. In some cases the fruit has been gathered which 
properly belonged to the nurserymen who are at the mercy of 
the very men to whom they have practically given valuable 
orchards. 
THREE CENTURIES IN NURSERY BUSINESS. 
Through a good portion of the eighteenth, all through the 
nineteenth centuries, and the start of the twentieth, my family 
has been engaged in the nursery business. My grandfather, 
the founder of the business, was born in or about the same 
year as King George III., 1738 or 1740. When this Richard 
Hartland reached manhood, he went to Kew Gardens as one 
of the staff, got noticed by the then Marquis of Bute, and 
James Earl of Kingston of Mitchelstown Castle, in this 
county, both of whom encouraged him to go to Ireland. He 
went and got special apartments in the Castle, his first work 
being the laying out of the entire grounds. 
“I have lived all through her late Majesty’s long reign, and seen 
all the changes in agricultural matters from the timber plough, 
the reaping with a sickle or hook, to the great facilities of 
the present day, in both the sowing and harvesting. We had 
no potato blight until 1846, the haulms keeping green until cut 
down naturally by frost. I hope I have proved to have a 
strong claim to seniority in a calling to which I am proud to 
