Forestry and the Iowa Farmer

Abstract

<p>The fact that Iowa has such a preponderance of agricu1tural land sometimes is responsible for disregard of forest values in the state. In most land transactions in Iowa, the farms sell at a specified price per acre with no thought of classifying the forest and agricultural land. The poorer soils and rough forest areas are '''1umped in" with the balance of the land at agricultural land prices. This practice has led the farmers to hold the wrong idea concerning actual forest land values as compared with agricultural values. In many sales it is quite difficult to make the land owner realize the relatively low value of forest soil as compared with agricultural land. This lack of balance between forest and agricultural land values has been prominently in evidence during the past several years in the purchase of state park lands in Iowa. In many cases areas of forest value only were held at agricultural prices which not only slowed up the purchase program of the State Conservation Board, but made condemnation proceedings necessary in certain cases.</p>