Peninsula Matters

Thousands of dollars' worth oí cedar have been destroyed by the burning of the muok land a few miles east of Metamora known as the cedar svvamp. Originally the fire started in the section visited by the late cyclone, where muoh timber had fallen and is supposed to be the work of incendiarles. The extended dry weather has made gveryI thin? in the vieinity highly inllammable. Those who claim to know say ït will burn underground unül flooded I this winter. All of the property ownI ers in the swamp fought the fire for several days and nights. The loss is rated at froin 8100 to $200 per acre, as it stands, but much has been cut and and piled and will be a total loss. Soine 800 acres have been burned over and the muck also destroyed. The exact loss will never be known. A big conflagration was causea by the spreading of a large fire in Beattle's woods two miles nortli of Utica. The ñames rapidly destroyed the fine forest and required constant fighting- in order to keep themfrom spreading to neighboring farms. The loss is heavy. It is thought the five was started by tramps roasting green corn. Everything is very dry and a rain is longed for. Fire is sweeping over hundreds of acres of pasture and meadows about Benton llarbor, and causing hundreds of dollars worth of damage. Farmers ave the ñames to protect their homes. The railroads are compellecl to keep men fighting fire along their tracks as the grasa is so dry that a spark from an engine ignites it. The present drouth is the most protracted that the southern counties has experienced in at least 20 years. There has not been a drop of rain since Sept. 16, and only one-tenth of an inch has fallen since Sept. 1. Field fires on lands skirting railroads are of daily oocurrence, and much alarm is feit. Forest tires are raging around Wilmot, and high winds cause intense excitement. Citizens are fighting hard to protect property.