Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-02-07
A REMEDY FOR sLizzARos.
Forestry should BE Greatly Stimulate
by Dakota's sad Experience.

Forestry should he Greatly Stimulated
by Dakota's sad Experience
Forestry, by the sad experience of this
winter. should be greatly stimulated in
Dakota. A blizzard is simply strong,
cold wind, moving unchecked over leagues
of light, unpacked snow. 1t sweeps up
that which has previously fallen, carries
it away in the color Of q vast shaken
fleece, distributes IL so that almost each
atmospheric atom has its little particle,
and drives along all with steady fury.
Whether fresh snow is falling can seldom
be determined by people out in a real bliz-
zard. As far rs the eye can see upward,
and that is hut little space. the hurry Of
minute pellets hurling Through ether"
across an unrevealed sky prevails, and the
hurrying saipeness on every side is varied
only by occasional tall ard bending
wraiths where the wind whirls in shifting
column. A confusion OF the SENSES, com
parable to none produced otherwise,
aDpals one submitted To the enormous and
binding force Of such u snow filed wind,
and scarcely . distinct thought remains
except that the awful cold forbids crouch.
ing for rest and shelter.
To our personal knowledge, one in such
n stormkeeps with difficulty upon rail-
way track lifted three feet above the sur
rounding prairie, and may lie lost by five
steps the wrong way after stumbling
down from the cmbankment, which, being
white, becomes instantly invisible. 1t Is
recorded on good authority that bands Of
teafnsters halting with their horses have
been showed over thirty feet deep by
blizzards. ond have survived by beating
out breathing chambers till the cessation
Of the storm enabled them 10 dig them
selves to upper air. The formation Of q
drift about a halted man, or horse, or
sleigh is sometimes wonderfully speedy,
and the drift, once established, grows by
virtue Of its obstructiveness. In some
well authenticated cases lost persons have
been found by the drifts over them and
dug out alive, in others the spring has re-
vealed corpses still unthawed among the
last white relics Of winter. In bliZZar,ls
people have often been unable to see across
the street of northwest town, and some
times men lose their direction in trying to
reach the opposite side Of u well built
way.
This does not indicate that the blizzard
would prevail if large tracts Of wood OBJ
structed The wind. as the buildings Of a
city do. The storm is fully developed
before reaching the town, and RACES
through and over the comparatively small
hnilded space. But extensive forests or
many roadside belts Of wood would keep
the blizzard down. Their frequent occur
renee and the great loss Of life from them
enforce the need, which exists from other
causes, for systematic tree planting on the
plains. To branch out roads. rs they do
over lakes, rivers and plains in the Quebec
province, is impossible on the treeless
prairie. Nor would the device always
save travellers. The Mennonites have
wisely established post road many miles
long in southern Manitoba. The posts
are about ten inches in diameter, fifteen
feet high, and not more, to our recollec-
tion. than fifty feet apart. Yet travellers
often stray from that road In billiards..
Toronto Globe.