The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-07-30
From the Graphic.
A DESOLATE REGION.
e VISIT TO PIKE COUNTY, PA.-A WILL
vlsaea DERNEss NEAR NEW YORK.

autA'.. DERNESS MEAN NEW AOhA'
MA 9ada 49, @aAt3 8@
BLOOMING GROVE PARK, Pike
county, Pa. July g. Howlfew peo-
pie are aware of the fact that within
six hours journey Of New York =
half Of which is by wagon-there is
wilderness as rugged and pictur-
esque as the Adironacks a region
where the inhabitants are few, and
where those who like to see nature
unadorned can be better satisfied
than in any other point this side of
the Rocky Mountains. | allude to
Pike county, Pa, through which |
have been travelling for some days.
On all sides I find evidence ofthe
painful attempts made from time to
time to brighten this region under
cultivation. While riding along the
old roads one sees houses and barns
forsaken and falling into ruin once
cultivated fields overgrown with
brushwood; young pines and oaks
straying in what were once potato
patches mills in decay dams
broken down agricultural lmple>
ments destroyed +; and it almost
makes ones heart ache to think of
the thousands ofpeop'e who have toll
ed year in and year out in the vain
hope that their hard work would
Sometime at least-give them liv-
ing for their families. This is a
country which once had plenty Of
timber T; but it has been nearly ruin
ed in this respect. The ground is
underlaid with igneous and meta
phoric rock, and there is so much of
this rock and stones that cultivation
all but impossible, except in gullies
and valleys where the soil has been
washed down from the heights,
afordlng few inches for raising
coarse grass or grain.
This ought to be a country for
timber and game, and it will, UNI
doubleday, in the near future, be a
sportsman's paradise. But after all
the original wood was cut off, the
few scattered settlers who keep COWS
made it point every spring to burn
down the brush with a view of fur
nishing pasture for their cattle. Hence
the region looks desolate. A few
pine trees may be fonnd along the
trout streams or upon the edges OF
lakes, but all through the country
are the dismal evidences of these
annual fires. A few hardy pines,
here and there escape wltha severe
searching, but yearly year this pitt
less work goes on, and millions Of
dollars Of what would be very vaIua-
bic wood are sacrificed t. keep
the lives Of few scrubby cattle.
1t is q pity that this whole region
could not be bought up by one great
company, and cattle exterminated,
and the land allowed to grow into
forest, which would in twenty-five
or thirty years be Of enormous val
lie. A tentative effort in this direct
ion is the Blooming Grove Park
Association composed Of a number of
sporting gentlemen, who have bought
about $4,000 acres of land, and have
secured sporting privileges over TO-
600 acres in addition, their sole
object being to Jet the woods grow so
and preserve the game. OF course the
annual fires have effected the game
as we'll IS the trees. Still there is a
great deal Of good fish, through the
creeks which run into the
Delaware in the neighborhood Of
Lackawaxen are nearly fshed out
at this season of the year. There
are plenty Of the fnny tribe further
inland, especially in the eight lakes,
which are the property Of this asso-
citation.
The most interesting part of Pike
county is the breeding park for deer.
A mile square Of wild country has
been fenced in with steel wire, and
here some seventy deer are enclosed.
Twenty Of these are .ame, and the
rest are red wild deer, The country
contains good many of the common
deer, and by means of this park it is
proposed to stock the country with