The New York herald., 1871-10-07


ment2
Tho Destructive Fires In tho Weeds and
Prnirics Of the West-A Question Of
Iifc or Death.
Destructive fires for months past have laid
waste vast amounts of property in the new
States and Territories of the West from Lakes
Superior and Michigan to the Pacific coast,
and extensive conAagrations are still raging in
the woods and prairies of Wisconsin and
Minnesota. A Adespatch from Smith Lake, Min
nesota, informs us that in that neighborhood
the grass is all burned off the prairie and the
ground is black and still smoking that houses,
barns and outbuildings have been burned like
finder; that in many instances the farmers
have barely escaped with their lives after
vainly fighting the fire till exhausted that the
burning timber, and that near Green Bay,
Wisconsin, one hundred families are reported
as burned out of house and home, and that in
that region the fires are now raging over three
thousand square miles of territory, consuming
In their track villages, farm houses, farm
buildings of all kinds, bridges, telegraph lines
and everything combustible in their course
and that while this work of ruin is going on
fear and excitement on all sides prevail, no
one daring to say when these fearful fires will
end.
/ Through all the summer, from week to
week, we have had to record heavy losses to
the inhabitants of this district that district or
the other from these forest fires, from New
York and the Canadas out to Oregon and Cali
fornia. On the northern side of the great
lakes thousands Of square miles of forest
lands, involving the burning out of numerous
settlers, have been laid waste millions of the
finest forest trees In the world have been
destroyed in Washington Territory and in the
States of Oregon and California, and even in
the State Of Nevada and in Colorado, Wyoming
and Utah Territories, where the timber Is
limited to narrow patches here aud there on
the mountain sides. The causes of these fires
are. first, this year, q dry season, approaching
. general drought over the belt of the Conti-
nent indicated; the combustible character of
the forests consumed, consisting mainly of
pines and spruce, whose leaves, in a cheated
term, In their greenest state, burn like dry
shavings, sparks from railway locomotives
the negligence of settlers, emigrants and
hunters In regard to their fires, and in the
fall the combustible nature Of the dry grass of
the prairies.
The immediate consequences of these
destructive fires involve the financial ruin Of
thousands of industrious people, the inevita-
BILE death Of many from exposure, disease and
want and general depression of the COM
munities afflicted by these visitations in all
their business affairs and social relations. The
ultimate consequences of these annual fires Of
the summer and autumn. if not arrested, will
In few years involve in the destruction OF
their timber, damages and losses to the States
and Territories concerned which may never be
repaired Over all these regions of the great
West the great drawback is the general
absence of timber, and all timberless countries
are rainless or subject to drought and
famine. From Minnesota eastward, on
both sides of the great lakes, we have
. region of splendid and extensive forests;
but II needs no meteorologst to inform the
people of this district of the great lakes that
their annual rainfall diminishes with the
clearing away Of their timber, and that their
living wells and streams are gradually drying
up az the country is laid bare to the sun.
The simple truth Is that the States and Terri
tories Of the West, whose great want is
timber, must save what they have and plant
more trees, instead of destroying what they
have, If they would escape the danger from
year to year Of drought and famine. Minne-
sofa and Wisconsin, we doubt not, if COM
pletely stripped Of their forests, would be as
rainless as the timberless plains of Dakota.
1t Is In this view that Congress and the Legis-
latures of the States and Territories con-
cerned cannot too soon direct their attention
rather 10 the enlargement than the destruction
of their groves and forests; for even to the
rising generation Of their people this thing
may become Q question Of life or death.
KxYsKR has made restitution of $500, 600 to
the city treasury. The Attorney General Of
the State is to be asked to prosecute other
dishonest contractors. This is good but in
Tho meantime tho city laborers need their pay
and the wheels Of the city government are
blocked for want Of funds. Will the Com
mittee OF Seventy advance the necessary
amount3
Mr.. TWEED says, In regard to Comptroller
Green's exhibit Of the financial condition Of
the Department Of Public Works, that there is
. discrepancy between his own statement
and the Comptroller's, and that there shall
b no stoppage Of work on the great
public improvements now In progress. II
there is q discrepancy in Mr.. Tweeds favor
between the actual condition Of the finances Of