The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-17
Extreme Dryness Causes Many
Fields to Burn.
Farmer Helps NeighbOr While
Own Wheat Is Destroyed.
WOMEN ASSIST AGAINST FIRE
To Save Automobile Woman
Learns to Operate 1t.
Engine Sparks, Cigarettes and
Threshing Crews Blamed.

Wichita, July 17.-Whiie County
Commissioner ]. T. Hessel of Cheney
was assisting six women a threshing
machine gang and neighbors in fight
ing wheat field fire near Oatville. a
fire was burning up seven ricks of
wheat for him on the old Jewett ranch.
The Jewett ranch fire was caused by
boys playing with matches.
Fire broke out near OatVille when
a workman pitched glazing chaff into
the stubble, and before the fire could
be controlled it had burned 400 bushels
of wheat and badly damaged the ma
chine.
The farm home of ]. c. Wilkins was
threatened, flames running within so
feet of the house and barn. So threat
ening was the fire that household goods
were moved into the road and Mrs.
Bessie Hall Cranked an auto and ran
it to safety, although she had never
handled a machine before.
Fire From Cigarette Covers 200 Acres.
Barnard. Kan. July IA cigaret set
fire to a threshing outfit here, burn
ing the machine, So acres of wheat
and 200 acres of pasture.
Sparks From Engine Start Fire.
Newton, Kan, July 17-Fire started
by a Missouri Pacific engine destroyed
% wheat stacks on the farms owned
by James and w. H. McAuliffe, north
of Newton. The wheat was the entire
crop from 60 acres which had been
estimated at % bushels an acre A
nearby threshine crew saved the farm
buildings by strenuous work.
Railroad Bridge Burns.
Manhattan, Kan. July 17-Fire
burned over three farms about four
miles north of Manhattan. A quantity
of hay. hay stacker and a Union
Pacific railroad bridge 80 feet long
were burned. Sparks from a freight
engine caused the fire that burned the
bridge and a passenger train was
sponsibIe for the other. Both fires
were in the same locality at the same
time.
Fifty Shocks of Wheat Burn.
Hiawatha. Kan. July 17.-While
threshing wheat on the Mae Lewis
farm near this place, sparks from the
engine set fire to the stubble, burning
about so shocks of wheat and scorch-
ing the separator badly, only the hard
work of the threshermen preventing
its complete destruction. The heat
and hot winds of the last few days
had dried out everything so that it
burned like finder.
Many Thrcshing Machines Burn.
Salina, Kan, July 1.-THE strong
wind of the past few days has been
instrumental in the loss of a number
OF threshing machines in central KAN
sas. Almost every day reports are
received of the burning of a machine
and a quantity of wheat, and yester-
day afternoon two machines were
burned within mile of each other.
They both We're at work near Assaria,
in this county, when the wind blew
sparks from the engine to the straw
and the wheat stacks and before the
machines could be removed from dan
ger they were consumed. One was
the property of Peter Sundgren and
the other belonged to Olof Isaacson,
and both were total loss. Each
mans loss was in the neighborhood of
$1,000.
Separator and Stack Burns.
Hoyt. July IA fire of unknown
origin destroyed the separator belong
ing to the threshing outfit of Isaac
and George Schermerhorn, and burned /
a straw stack which had just been
threshed for Fred Ingle, three miles
west of here.
This is the second thresher to burn !
within a week. Claude Ewing, a |
farmer living west of Elmont, had a |
new separator which had been used !
less than a week, go through a fire |
when a straw stack burned. 1t was |
an all steel. guaranteed fireproof. but
was considerably warped, and all belts, |
pulleys, etc, were destroyed.