FIRING THE WOODS. 321 



And there are many intelligent land-owners in the State 

 who will indorse this opinion and who endeavor, but in 

 vain, to preserve for their soil the humus it so much needs. 

 But year after year they see it destroyed for the benefit of 

 those very cattle who also destroy their crops. There is 

 no redress ; the law authorizes the theft of their best fer- 

 tilizer, provided it is done according to certain prescribed 

 rules. 



It is terribly hard upon the poor, patiently toiling set- 

 tler. Let any one glance over the columns of the Florida 

 country papers, during the months from January to April, 

 and he will realize the pressing urgency of this matter. 

 The reports of fences, houses, groves, even lives destroyed 

 by these wholesale burnings v;ill reveal the true inwardness 

 and culpability of a law which allows a practice so injuri- 

 ous to our State and to the common sense of its lawgivers. 

 It is a law that stands side by side with that which pro- 

 tects the man wlio turns out his cattle and hogs to prey 

 upon his neighbors' crops; they may have been just when 

 they were enacted years ago, when Florida was little else 

 than a vast grazing ground with houses and fields few and 

 far between ; but times have changed, and such laws must, 

 and speedily will be, changed. 



Like the old Florida cow and its management, the forest 

 fires and the fencing out of your neighbors' roving stock 

 will soon be among the traditions of the past, and hard- 

 ships that the coming settler will not be obliged to face. 

 They have endured too long, but their end is near. 



"What is the motive of those who thus fire the woods 

 in the settlements?" you ask. 



To illustrate: A thickly-settled neighborhood, owning 

 valuable fences and groves, resolved to make a cordon 

 around the settlement and ''whip out" all approaching 

 fires at a distance from their property. But they reckoned 



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