THE FIELD-PLAT. 17 



sunshine of a whole summer ; it is the outcome of 

 man's thought and patient labour, and it is the food 

 of the helpless cattle. Besides the hay, there often 

 go with it buildings, implements, waggons, and occa- 

 sionally horses are suffocated. Once now and then 

 the farmstead goes. 



Now, has not the farmer, even if covered by insur- 

 ance, reason good to dread this horrible incendiarism ? 

 It is a blow at his moral existence as well as at his 

 pecuniary interests. Hardened indeed must be that 

 heart that could look at the old familiar scene, 

 blackened, fire-spilt, trodden, and blotted, without an 

 inward desolation. Boxes and barrels of merchandise 

 in warehouses can be replaced, but money does not 

 replace the growth of nature. 



Hence the brutality of it — the blow at a man's 

 heart. His hay, his wheat, his cattle, are to a farmer 

 part of his life ; coin will not replace them. Nor does 

 the incendiary care if the man himself, his house, home, 

 and all perish at the same time. It is dynamite in 

 despite of insurance. The new system of silos — bury- 

 ing the grass when cut at once in its green state, in 

 artificial caves — may much reduce the risk of fire if 

 it comes into general use. 



These fire invasions almost always come in the form 

 of an epidemic; not one but three, five, ten, fifteen 

 fires follow in quick succession. Sometimes they last 

 through an entire winter, though often known to take 

 place in summer, directly after harvest. 



Karely does detection happen ; to this day half these 

 incendiary fires are never followed by punishment. 

 Yet it is noted that they generally occur within a 



c 



