FOREST FIRES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 November 1924, Page 7

FOREST FIRES.

AND FORTY DAYS’ DROUGHT. DAMAGE IN AMERICA. BY CAELE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. NEW YORK, Nov. 13. The drought throughout the country is now approaching its fortieth consecutive day, and is causing tremendous damage through forest fires, which arise everywhere. The slightest carelessness on the part of woodsmen is sufficient to ignite tinderlike forests. The damage is inestimable, but will easily run into millions of dollars. The States "suffering worst are -New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, and California. The flames cover a wide radius, destroying forests, burning villages and paralysing motor traffic, since drivers are dreading evelopment by shifting winds. Most States have suspended all hunting licenses. While redoubling efforts to check the fires, the task, often appears hopeless, and armies of fire fighters frequently suffer the heart-breaking experience of the wind shift just after the blaze ig. within control, thus scattering brands in a hundred new directions. v The prison officials in several localities: permitted the inmates to help to check the flames, and rich men are offering attractive wages to enlist itinerant labour .to save large estates. The seasonal damage appears greatest in the southern States; where the fires destroyed vast areas of garden truck and crops, upon which the large cities of the east depend for their winter supplies. Meantime numerous rural communities assemble in the churches daily, praying for rain. Others have contracted with so-called rain-makers, notably an individual nanjed Hatfield. Army experts continue their experiments of scattering electrified sand into the clouds from aeroplanes, but these, when -successful, relieve only a limited area. The Forestry officials everywhere are broadcasting appeals ■to campers to avoid carelessness, but it is recognised that ’rain alone- can counteract the woodland menace.