Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-09-06

Few residents OF Texas appreciate
how fortunate they are with the best
all-round crop In the history Of the
state, cattle advancing in price, i'm
migrants coming In ON every train and
foreign capital seeking investment here,
! Texas enters on an era Of exceptional
| prosperity. Contrast this picture whit
/ these two from New York and Kansas;
New York Times: Those New orkerS
I who have been doomed to stay in New
| York during August cannot have any
! adequate conception Of the havoc that
I has already been wrought and the
greater havoc that Is threatened, by
| the continuance Of the drought II af.
fects n great part of New England and
| the Middle States, and 1t has devas-
tated the pasturage Of the whole dairy
region to such an extent that 1t de-
lamity
During the past week the attention
even OF stHy-at-homei New Workers
has been directed to the drought by
ono OF its seQuels. Tho ucrid smoke
that has been waited into the streets
OF the city from nobody rDn tell how
many miles away has LJr1le direct
testimony to the existence OF forest fires
on scale that IS common enough in
Wisconsin and Michigan, but almost
unknown ON the Atlanta coast. In
deed, only those whose memories go
back half century pretend to recall
any parallel to the existing condition.
In 1886 It Is said that New England
suffered from a drought that can fairly
he compared with tho drought Of 1894.
Certainly no young or middle-agcd per-
son can remember such summer In
this region. Il ia now no longer n
question OF pnsturage alone, MS it was
a month ago. II Is a question of the
security Of farm houses and even OF
villages, All along the lines Of the
RAILROADS. there are great patches
burned black by fires in the midst of
the fields burned brown by the sun.
The grass the fences, even the trees,
are not only fuel. but almost finder
The careless dropping Of a match in a
field may start any day n coniingration
that VIII devastate u county and de-
stroy It's Villages,
The farmers and the Villagers alike
are almost helpless in the face Of the
danger. The same condition that rem
dcrs the country so accessible to fire
makes the people defenscless. The
streams are lower than anybody re-
mombcrs them to have been. In those
communities that have communal
placed on the use OF the water, and
there Ia little or no supply that is avail
able against tre. Wells aud springs
have failed that never failed before,
cistcrus have been exhausted and dried
up There arc only very inadequate
means or lighting the FIRE II It comes,
And the situation IL growing worse eY-
cry day. as the country Is more and
more pnrched into finder and as the
supply OF water IL cvaporated. Unless
there ARE early and copious rains, the
drought Of 1894 is likely TO produce re-
suits SO cnlamltous that they will cause
It TO be remembered with sorrow
throughout the whole region affected.
kansaa city Star 1t Is too late for
the rain to save the corn CROP" that
crop, whore Il needed n redcemer was
burned up long ago, aud where 1t was
saved by previous rains from May
until the middle Of August, the rain
was unnecessary and Irrelevant, But
even in the "hurned district" where
the corn stands brown and shrlvoled
the rain viii come MS an unmiNed bless
ing. II viii put the ground in condi-
tin for fan blowing. and the thousands
Of KarFas Farmers who have lost every
thing this summer will so bravely to
the bank borrow money to buy seed
put In their wheat and live on butter
and eggs and faith until next June The
grass Is frcshened up: grazing VIII be
good for at least sixty days longer.
the farmer can use his corn stnllSs
for fodder for the cattle; he Will get
through como way. 1t may be- hard
pull; there may he fewer kinds of
cake on the THANKSGIVING table: hut
the plum crop has been fair and the
grapes make good Jelly There will be
pumpkins for pies, and enough
''shoats' to furnish fresh meat from
time 20 time through the winter. The
Kansas farmer will be all right and
times viii look up in the SPRING as
they have been from the beginning.