The grass has become so parched and dry that the farmers are having to feed their stock two months ahead of the usual time, and drive them miles to water. It is feared that later in the year there will be a fodder famine.
As a regular thing, the cattle graze in the fields and feed themselves until the frost comes, when the farmers begin to feed them. Enough fodder is raised during the season to carry the stock comfortably through until the grass is up again; but as the corn and roots are liable to rot or mould, little more is grown than is necessary. You can see that it is a serious business for the farmers to have had to touch their winter supplies two months ahead of time.
It is this drought which has caused the forest fires.
In those sections of the country that have as yet escaped the fire, the prairies are as dry as tinder, and the owners of the fields are in constant fear that a spark from a passing locomotive may set fire to them. Men are kept on the watch night and day to prevent such a calamity.
The Tonawanda Swamp is also on fire.
Tonawanda is in the northern part of New York State, in the neighborhood of Buffalo, and is a great lumber town.
The swamp covers twenty-five thousand acres, and adjoining it are many rich farm lands and valuable buildings.
The underbrush grows so thickly in this swamp that it has always been necessary to clear it out every little while, and so the people have been in the habit of setting it on fire every year a few days before the equinoctial storms were due. They had found from experience that by the time the storms came the fires had burnt out enough of the undergrowth for their purpose, and the heavy rains which usually accompany the storms put the fires out for them.
This year, however, the equinox brought no storm with it, and the lighted fires have continued to burn with such fierceness that not only the swamp, but the surrounding country, is in danger of being laid waste.
The equinox is that period in which the sun, in its yearly course, crosses the equator, and makes the day and the night of equal length. This occurs twice in the year,—about March 21st and September 22d,—and, as we have told you, is usually attended by high winds and severe storms.