NEWS AND NOTES 



A Season of Droughts 



FROM the Middle West, the West, 

 and Northwest come reports of 

 long-continued and damaging droughts 

 a peculiar condition, it would seem, to 

 those who only a few weeks ago read 

 of the destructive floods that raged in 

 the south and southeastern parts of the 

 country. In the early part of Septem- 

 ber the drought conditions in western 

 Pennsylvania and West Virginia be- 

 came so serious as to interfere with in- 

 dustrial activity. Several plants of the 

 Frick Coke Company were compelled 

 to shut down, owing to shortage of 

 the water supply ; while at Morgan- 

 town, W. Va.. the big plant of the 

 American Sheet and Tinplate Company 

 was forced to suspend operations for 

 the same cause. Scores of lumber, coal 

 and coking plants in the two states 

 mentioned were also compelled to close 

 down for longer or shorter periods be- 

 cause of lack of water ; while Johns- 

 town, Pa., has been practically without 

 water for some weeks, owing to the 

 total drying-up of two of the large 

 reservoirs supplying the town. 



In the Middle West the drought con- 

 ditions have been equally severe and 

 long-continued. In the section sur- 

 rounding Laporte, Ind.. and contiguous 

 territory, on September 13. the farmers 

 joined in all-day services, praying for 

 rain. Through Indiana Ohio, Michi- 

 gan, Wisconsin. Iowa, and on west 

 to the Rocky Mountains, the drought 

 also prevailed, doing great damage and 

 paving the way for destructive fires. 

 insect plagues, and a host of evils. Re- 

 ports for the irrigated lands of the West 

 indicate that not in a great many years 

 has there been such a pronounced short- 

 age of water for irrigation purposes ; 

 while, in the middle western regions, 



farmers hauled water in barrels, for 

 distances of several miles, to supply 

 their live stock. 



Flood Damage in the blouth 



NOT in years has the South been vis- 

 ited with as serious and disastrous 

 floods as those that swept the streets of 

 Augusta, Ga., and other Southern citie- 

 a few weeks ago. Damage to the 

 amount of several millions of dollars 

 was done by floods in Georgia alone ; 

 while neighboring states suffered almost 

 equally appalling loss. While the \\ <--t 

 and the Middle West suffered from 

 drought and forest fires, the South was 

 being plagued with inundations that 

 swept away property to the value < < f 

 millions, and caused the loss of scores 

 of human lives. The same condition- 

 are responsible for the floods in the 

 South and the drought in western Penn- 

 sylvania and We-t Virginia, namely, 

 the deforestation of the mountain 

 slopes. Pennsylvania's annual flood 

 loss runs into the millions of dollars. 

 and the South is rapidly coming \<> a 

 similar condition. Spring and winter 

 floods annually ravage Pennsylvania, 

 sweeping away in a few days property 

 amounting in value to far more than 

 would be the cost of inaugurating and 

 maintaining a thorough and practical 

 system of mountain-slope reforestation 

 and water conservation by means of 

 flood-water reservoir-; while the estab- 

 lishment of a comprehensive system of 

 such reservoirs would do away with con- 

 ditions such as have lately forced the 

 suspension of scores of mills and factor- 

 ies that have been r< 'innellcd to clos C - 

 down on account of lack of water. Flood - 

 at one season inundations that ravage 

 an entire region and wash away millions 

 of dollars in property and other inil- 



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