The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1877-04-26
BURNING PRAIRIE

EDITOR ADVANCE: Please allow me
few words Of explanation in regard to
the g fire law" passed by the last Leg
islature. read few days since, and
again this morning, articles in the Pho
neer Press, seeming to convey the same
idea that l have heard a number of our
own people express in regard to it, viz:
that the law contemDlates that the
prairie shall all be burned on the 18th
day of May prox., and that in conse-
Quence all the nests of our feathered
friends, the birds, of "various hue and
cry" will be destroyed and one of our
greatest helps to the destruction Of
grasshoppers be lost. That is one OBJ
lection, and were it true would be Sc
rious one. But as it see ms to me, land
in fact may say isl not true it loses
its force. But you will say that is mere
ly an assertion. Allowed, however,
with this reasoning. The law says lin
substance) that no prairie shall be burn
ed before the 18th Of May, and then not
till permission has been granted by the
proper authority, etc. The object
sought by the law is for one thing, viz:
the destruction of grasshoppeis. All
know that they are not near all Matched
by that time, and therefore were the
grass all burned the next day, that OBJ
ject of the law would be defeated, and
| therefore the law would be void SO far.
But it does not Say that it must be
burned then, and leaves it discretionary
with the officer in charge to burn then
or Whenever in his judgment it may
best attain the end sought.
Another object. it seems to me,
sought by this law is the very laudable
one OF preventing, as much as possible,
any fire at all from running wild thro'
the country, and to preserve, as far as
possible, all this grass from year to year
OF until such time as it becomes to the
evident interest of the country itself
that it should be burned, and thereby
we. save those very bird nests which the
law is now accused of destroying. At
my own place. AS to the reason given
that grass is needed for pasture. you
will, l think find that although it may
work perhaps much Inconvenience this
year, it will not do so any longer, for
should all take hold with evident deter
mination to carry the law out, all would
be prepared with ground next spring OH
which to pasture at the earliest mo-
ment, and we would also have later and
| better grass IN the fall.
Another thing by keeping this wild
fire out fire is i good servant but bad
mastery we within: very few years
have natural groves of timber, for only
the annual fires keep the trees from
growing on this prairie. r.:
BY doing what the law, IN may estima-
ton contemplates, we will accomplish
a great and desirable good for:our coun-
ty, viz: encourage the birds, instead Of
DIES troy them; encourage tree growing
naturally, instead of discouraging it by
destruction, and above all will leave no
place on the prairies in which the
tspeskey varmint," can lay it's eggs ex-
1:cepting only the-cultivated land, and
on that when eggs may oe laid, we can
by various means destroy the eggs and
the grasshoppers. ~ I. :: 80 e -
| The grass: being left on the ground
will form mat underneath which the
grasshopper will penetrate to lay. Let
us try and carry out the Ito mel EVIL
dent spirit Of the law: +: 4
- 80 s :< --s-.s--:::jj.s ! R. B. PLorrs.