Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-09-19
LATE FLOODS.


Disastrous floods in the southern part
of Brazil are chronicled in the Buenos
Ayres Standard Of July 81, just received.
The Pre'asa believes the loss, which was
at first estimated at 100000 sheep
and cattle, will not fall short Of 5000 900
sheep and 1000 COWS and horses.
And the details published show that the
calamity is one of the most appalling
magnitude, and attended with terrible
sufTerlngs and privations A letter of
the Mayor Of Dolores reports most of
the department of Tordillo under water,
the inhabitants having just had time to
escape with their lives. Most of the
cattle saved from the floods of April
and May have now persisted. The man
ager of the NivOras Estancia writes that
on the Dist whole focks Of sheep were
swept away, and he fears the shepherds
too are drowned Dom Pedro Iturralde
reports four-fifths Of his sheep drowned,
say $4,000 head, in the district of Veci-
no. The shepherds are without food or
dry clothing, and the sheep remaining
eat the mud walls of the ruined ranches.
In Ayacucho there have been similar
losses. The Commissary of Barracks
reports, July q: Pueblo Alsina is under
water, also portions of the fifth and sixth
sections, from the, Ensenada Railway
station to Puento Chico. In looking for
the cause of the floods the Standard
says: "The coincidence of these floods
with an earthquake shock on Thursday
night (26th) felt at Mendoza, Cordoba
and Buenos Ayres leads some persons to
suppose the former are partly the result
Of volcanic disturbance; especially as
some wells in our suburbs suddenly ran
dry the day before the shock More
over a lake has suddenly appeared at
Catamarca, which is gradually swallow
ing up farms and trees"
DAMAGED CROPS IN ENGLAND. SCOTLAND
AND IRELAND.
Says the Manchester Guardian of Aug
ust 20: In the Midland counties and
further north the harvest is very back
ward and some anxiety is being felt as
to the result. Although we are nearly
at the close Of August, the crops, even
with propltiOus weather, will take some
time to ripen, and the rainfall having
been heavy of late, fears are entertain
ed that the wheat harvest will prove to
be a disappointment" Other reports by
mailto August 2S Dumfries. The grain
crops in this district have been very
much fiattened by the continuous and
excessive rainfall, and the harvest will
be unusually late. Oats have been SO
much laid that the stalks Will scarcely
be able to rise again. Barley and wheat
are interior in quality. Great damage
has also been done to the hay crop, and
hundreds of ricks were standing in wa
ter during the recent floods. Turnips
are still fair crop, but potatoes, it is
feared, are showing symptoms Of disease
Wolverhampton.-S Saturday the
district of South Staffordshire has been
visited with continuous heavy rains, and
in the agricultural portions of the dis
trict the crops have been beaten down
and very seriously damaged Stone
haven Scotland We have had such
heavy rain and strong wind that the
hood is very great. Every kind of crop
appears driven into the earth, and it
will take long time of dry weather
and sunshine to redeem the damage al
ready done. The hay crop is really
looking miserable; the cocks are dark
in color, and creeping. as it were, into
the earth, being both damaged above
and below The grain crops are laid as
by roller; the potatoes are also very
much broken down, and the ground as
wet as may be, which will no doubt be
the means Of feeding the disease which
has set In, IN some instances in this
neighborhood. Saturday proved very
unfavorable day for reaping, being very
wet, and no carting could be proceeded
with.
In a memorandum recently issued by
DR.. Piazzi Smith, the Astronomer Royal
for Scotland, he says: eff we attempt to
approximate to the rainfall for the whole
month of August, 1877, by supplying
the remaining days by means of the
same number of days from the end of
last July, the August rainfall for this OBJ
servatory roof will have been $500
inches, which is equivalent to 1916 inch
es in the average for the principal towns
of Scotland, as printed by the Registrar
General for births, deaths, &C., in his
various reports, based on the observa-
tons of the Scottish Meteorological So
ciety during the last twenty-one years.
Has that officer, then, through all these
years, ever been known to publish such
a rainfall (fer the average Of the princi-
pal towns of Scotland) as S.945 inches
in any month of August? And the an
swer IS, Never. Once in 1861 the rain
fall was 7.13 inches, but the next highest
return was only 5.33 and sos inches, in
1868 and 1874 respectively; while his
average August of all the years is only
3.42 inches. The present year. there
fore, transcends in the gravity of the
situation everything which the farming
interests of the country have had to
deal with since the commencement Of
the publication Of the Registrar-Gen
erals returns for Scotland"
A GOOD character is in all cases the
fruit of personal exertion It is not
created by external advantages; it is no
necessary appendage to birth, wealth,
talents or station; but it is the result Of
ones own endeayors, the fruit and re-