The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-02-26
State Wide Publicity Bureau says
Much is Wasted In Failure to
go in for Scientific
Forestry.
MUCH LAND IS SUITED
Property Would Support Timber and
is Well Fitted for This, Ac-
cordins to Commissions
Expert.

The Iowa state wide publicity com
mission calls attention to one Of the
things that Iowa has heretofore over
looked, as follows:
Iowa can add $4,000, 900 to its an
nual revenues by the scientific use OF
It's natural timber areas.
Iowa has 100000 acres Of natural
timber, or about per cent of the total
area of the state.
Iowa's natural timber acreage is
greater than the combined natural
timber area of Nebraska, Kansas,
South Dakota and North Dakota, and
Is as great as that of Illinois.
lowa's woodlands are capable of
producing timber approximately ten
times as valuable as the product Of
Rhode Island woodlands; seven times
as much as Delaware; two and one
fourth times as much as Kansas: more
than Massachusetts and New Jersey,
and as much as Illinois, Vermont or
Maryland.
That Iowa can grow it's own lumber
and become factor in the lumber
ing industry is shown by the foregoing
facts which have been brought to light
by Professor G. B. Macdonald, based
on careful preliminary survey.
The agricultural possibilities of the
state has SO absorbed the attention If
those interested, in the various re-
sources, that sight of the lumber
possibilities and the vast resources ly.
ing in this direction has never been
gained.
The average Iowan, in pursuit of his
70
try in Iowa a single thought. He
knows that the rivers are lined with
belts of oak, maple. ash, hickory and
various other valuable woods, but the
use of these woods, further than posts
and fire wood has hardly entered his
mind. Those outside Nthe state do not
know that there is any timber iii
Iowa; in fact, the general opinion Of
Iowa is that the state Is broad and
rich prairie, the topography Of which
is fiat and monotonous, like the great
plains of western Nebraska and Kan
sas. 1t is the impression that what
woods are now growing in Iowa
were planted by the pioneers.
The topography Of Iowa furnishes
an interesting study. The state lies
between the two great rivers OF
North America, the Mississippi anl
the Missouri. Numerous rivers. hav-
ing their origin in the lake region Of
Minnesota, cross the state in a south
easterly or southwesterly direction,
tributary to the Mississippi and to the
Missouri respectively. The divide
between the two great valleys is
sharp and well defined across the
state, consequently there is wide
prairie where there are no rivers.
On the Mississippi side of the divide
the rivers of cons euuence that cross
Iowa are the Des Mcines, which enters
the Mississippi at the southeastern
corner of the state, the Skunk, the
Iowa, the Cedar, the Wapsipinicon, the
Maquoketa and the Turkey. The
tributaries to the Missouri which
cross Iowa are, the Nishnabotna, the
Boyer, the Little Sioux, the Floyd and
the Rock. Besides these there are
numerous other smaller rivers each
of which has its respective woodland
belts. The width of these timber
growths along the rivers varies from
one to ten miles on each side and the
aggregate Of this area accounts for
the seven per cent Of natural timber
area in Iowa.
This 100000 acres Of land in Iowa
suited to timber production is either
Producing nothing at all or is not
earning as much in agricultural crops
as it could earn in forest crops. 1t
has been estimated that in one loca-
ton alone, In the Iowa Islands in the
river valley opposite Al
lamakee and Clayton counties. there
are nearly 1900 acres of land which
is only in small parts suited for agri-
culture, but which is excellent for
timber planting. To utilize such
lands for timber production is one of
the outstanding problems for Iowans
to solve in the coming years.