NOTABLE FOREST FIRES. 121 



by burning out all organic matter from the soil and leaving it 

 in poor shape for crops, though a rather severe but not excessive 

 firing of bogs may do much to clear the land of roots and put 

 it in shape for a good hay meadow. Then, too, they often so 

 reduce the level of the land by burning out the organic matter 

 as to make it wet and of no value for agricultural crops. If 

 such fires are attacked soon after they secure a foothold in the 

 soil they are seldom very difficult to put out. Where not deep 

 in the ground or of very great extent the burning peat may be 

 ,dug out and watered, but this is often impracticable on account 

 of the heat. In this latter case a ditch should be dug around the 

 fire as close to it as practicable and of sufficient depth to reach 

 standing water or the subsoil. The fire should then be carefully 

 watched to see that it does not get beyond the ditch. It is sel- 

 dom that sufficient water can be put on a large bog fire to put 

 it out, on account of the great amount of water that dry peat 

 will absorb and the protective covering of ashes and peat usually 

 found over a bog fire. 



NOTABLE FOREST FIRES. 



Among the worst forest fires which have occurred on this 

 continent are the following: 



Miramichi Fire of 1825. This occurred near Newcastle, 

 on the Miramichi river, in New Brunswick. In nine hours it 

 had destroyed a belt of forest eighty miles long and twenty-five 

 .miles wide, and almost every living thing was killed on that 

 amount of territory; even the fish were destroyed in the smaller 

 lakes and streams. It is estimated that the loss from this fire, 

 not including the value of the timber burned, was $300,000. One 

 hundred and sixty persons lost their lives, and nearly 1,000 head 

 of stock were killed. 



The Peshtigo Fire occurred in October, 1871. This burned 

 an area of over 2,000 square miles in Wisconsin. Between 1,100 

 and 1,500 persons lost their lives, and property to the amount of 

 many millions of dollars was destroyed. 



Very serious fires have occurred in Michigan from time to 

 time, in one of which, in about 1871, a strip of territory forty 

 miles wide and 180 miles long, extending across the central part 

 of the state from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, was devastated. 



