401 



of coffee, there is not a product of the soil pertaiuing- to the tropical or 

 temperate zones, and which is of real use to man as food, which cannot 

 he grown in the South. 



In the efforts which southern people may make to im[)rove their 

 agricultural methods they shall receive my hearty sympathy and earnest 

 co-operation. The Department over which I have been called to preside 

 was established for the benefit of the whole country, and I invite 

 southern men to look to it as to a friend, and to make free use of the 

 facilities it offers. 



I am, sir, very respectfully, . 



FEEDERICK WATTS, * 



Commissioner of Agriculture. 



DROUGHT AND FIRE IX THE NORTHWEST. 



Our correspondents in the Northwestern States send us distressing 

 details of the effects of the two months' drought throughout the most 

 of that region, and of the terrible fires which have, in a great measure, 

 resulted therefrom. The earth is dried to such a depth that it acts as a 

 conductor, and living trees are falling from the action of the fire which 

 undermines them. Streams and wells are unprecedentedly low, or en- 

 tirely dry ; vegetation is dried up ; fields are so parched that there is 

 little succulent food for stock. The fire fiend has followed with appall- 

 ing fury, causing fearful destruction of life and property. For several 

 weeks great fires have been raging in the woods, in the dried marshes, 

 and along the lines of railways, consuming buildings, fences, crops, and, 

 destroying live stock, desolating hundreds of square miles, and render- 

 ing- homeless and without food or employment thousands of men, women, 

 and children, just at the opening of winter. The loss of life is of fright- 

 ful magnitude, and rarely in the history of the world have these fires 

 been equaled in the destruction of human life and of property and in 

 the desolation of whole communities. Towns and villages have been 

 swept out of existence in the space of a few hours, and thousands of 

 human beings have been burned, drowned, or have fallen victims to other 

 violent forms of death. Not less than fifty villages, in the States of 

 Wisconsin and Michigan, have been wholly or in part destroyed. The 

 town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, with a population of 1,500 to 2,000, has 

 been entirely consumed, not a vestigeof its habitations remaining, and 

 those only of its population escaped who threw themselves into the 

 river and reached the opposite shore. Hundreds were burned, suffo- 

 cated, and drowned. This fire, driven by the high winds, swept over 

 an area of eight miles square, destroying houses, barns, fences, &c., and 

 the loss of life will number over a thousand. The Belgian settlement 

 of Brussels was almost entirely consumed, many persons are missing, 

 and the survivors are left destitute amid the ashes of their ruined 

 homes. The whole coast, from Green Bay to Menomonee, has been de- 

 vastated, many villages consumed and their population made houseless 

 wanderers, dependent upon charity for the necessaries of life. On the 

 east shore of Green Bay the loss of life is placed as high as at Peshtigo, 

 and the destruction of buildings, fences, stock, &c., is complete. 

 More than a dozen towns along the eastern shore of Michigan have 

 been swept away, and many hundreds of people left without food or 

 shelter. A large district, including several towns, has been devastated 



