The Globe-republican., 1894-01-19

This is subject that should arrest the
attention of all interested in farming in
dustries in western Kansas, as all this re-
gion is one boundless area extending in this
and adjoining states more than thousand
miles from north to south and nearly as
great in exten. east and west, broken only
here and there BY river Of sufficient ex-
panse to stop fire.. Once started on dry
grass, with fierce wind, a fire can be car
ried hundred miles in less than twenty
four hours. A friend of mine on his way
to Pixies Peak, during the gold excite
ment Of 1859, travelled up the Arkansas
river, and described the country as sparse
" covered with short buffalo grass until
he reached Pawnee Rock, and from there
Oh bare ard barren plains and sand hills,
with very little vegetation of any kind.
He attributed it then to the prairies being
burned over so often, and think to day
that it was caused more by that than by
reason of the co ntinued tramp Of the buff
falo for a thousand years as claimed by
many writers. 1t seems that for a num-
Der of years after the pioneers and COW
boys got hold Of the country and civiliza-
ton began to travel westward, prairie fires
were to some extent stopped, and vegeta-
ton began to grow to a considerable ex-
tent. And in 1884, when came to Ford
county, there hid been two or three years
Of unusual moisture during which fires
had to some extent been guarded against,
and the result showed in vegetation. In
the spring of 1854 the country was swept
by a very destructive fire. The result was
very thin, short grass for a year or two,
with quite large spaces between the bunch
es, and the blue stem did not start again
for two years. After tina: the fires were
kept out for seven years, and marked
improvement was seen everywhere. The
plains became solid mass of buffalo grass,
and large patches of blue stem appeared,
making a luxuriant growth. Weeds and
sunflowers, on cultivated soil, grew four
to ten feet high during these seasons. AL
though the rainfall was not to any consid-
cradle extent increased, yet the moisture
in the ground became very much greater
and longer retained. As a consequence
crops became more certain and heavier.
In some places buffalo grass was cut for
hay, and the gramma and blue stem grass
es in the draws produced an abundance of
forage. But in the spring of '92, from
some unknown cause, fires became more
frequent and of large extent. 1t seemed
that when the heavy coat Of matted grass
became ignited it was impossible to con-
troll the flames, and large area of the
country was burned over. While we had
very heavy rains in the fall of 1891, the
moisture penetrating deeper than ever be-
fore, and the winter wheat crop showing
a good stand in the fall and early spring,
we had very little moisture after the first
Of April. Yet we raised the largest crop
of wheat ever raised in Kansas. However,
we raised no corn and but little forage, as
the fires seem to sap the very life out of
all veget alton that was not we'll rooted be-
fore the fires came. The weeds and SUM-
flowers made very small growth, and
trees scarcely grew at all, many of them
dying or becoming permanently dwarfed.
The fall and winter of '92 and '93 provid-
ed considerable moisture in the shape of
snow and rain, yet vegetation did not
show up in the spring as usual. During
the spring of '93 the winds seemed to be
higher and more continuous, and prairie
fires kept breaking out in every direction.
The air was black with dust, smoke and
ashes by day and lit up by lurid flames by
night. And while the grass was short
from burning the year before, the spring
was SO dry and wind so continuous that it
seemed almost impossible to stop fire
once started. And on that terrible. hot,
windy day-April eth, lS93-hres seemed
to almost spring up spontaneously from
passing engines on railroads, from emil
grant camp fires, from cigar stub or a !
match carelessly dropped on the road.
Prairie fires ragged in nearly every county
in western Kansas, and swept at least over
half the territory from the Arkansas river
to the northern line of the state west of
the Goth meridian. The consequence was
that grass, weeds. vegetation and all small
grain, and even sun flowers. scarcely made
any any growth during the whole sum-
mer. From the $4,000 acres of wheat
planted in Ford county, don't think that |
there were &c, 900 bushels matured. Corn,
cane, millet and even Jerusalem corn were
total failures. The only species of vege-
tation that stood the test was alfalfa. But |
my friend Churchill will tell you all about |
hat, Twill aay right here, however, that |
DE river bottoms produced good alfalfa,
but on the uplards even alfalfa had to sue
,u2b to the effects Of prairie fires. As |
knov to nv cost grass did not grow over