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RUNNING THE
FIRE-GUARD |
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March
28, 1868, page 196 (Illustrated Article) |
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We
illustrate on this page a peculiarity of Western farming which will
be new to most of our readers. To fully comprehend the sketch it
must be remembered, first, that wood is very scarce and valuable on
the prairies, and also that the fires which sweep for miles across
the plains are very destructive. As a general thing, the dry season
of the West is in the fall and early winter—another peculiarity of
that peculiar country—and the fires naturally prevail mostly about
that time. To guard the fences on his farm from these fires the
farmer plows up several furrows parallel to each fence on the
uncultivated or prairie side, from which the fire which consumes the
prairie-grass is to be expected. This breaks the "continuity of
the fire-current," as one old farmer expressed it to our
artist, and the fire is brought to a stop in that direction. After
harvest the farmer is often busy for days in running these guards in
anticipation of fires, and when one by accident or procrastination
loses his fences he considers himself most unfortunate indeed. |
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It is when the
fire comes unexpectedly, before the crops are in and the fences
guarded, or, as sometimes happens, when the fire-fiend comes from
the wrong direction, against which no preparation has been made,
that the scene depicted in the sketch occurs. It is not true—as
has been sometimes stated, and as was generally believed years ago,
when we supposed the great West was a great sandy desert—that
prairie-fires move with lightning rapidity. They move fast enough,
it is true, but often the farmer who sees the fires in the distance
is enabled to hastily run a fire-guard on the unguarded side of his
fences in time to save his property; but it is work requiring a
quick and steady hand, and is not unattended with danger. |
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March 28,
1868, page 196 (Illustrated Article) |
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