The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1865-10-04
Agriculture in Utah.

1t has been predicted by many travel
lers and explorers that large part of the
territory west of the settled States and
east of the Rocky Mountains is worthless
for agricultural purposes, and that the
tide of emigration and the creation of
new States must soon be arrested. But
correspondent of the Springfield Re-
publican shows what can he done in
Utah by artificial irrigation, and the
same may be true Of the desert land
generally:
The necessity of all agriculture, on the
plains, among the mountains, on the Pa
ciiic shore, all the western half OF our
continent, is irrigation. The long, dry
summers, frequently months without rain,
the hot sun and dry winds, the clayey
character of the soil, all insure utter de-
feat to the farmers business, except he
helps his crops to water by artificial
means. But in Utah, agriculture is the
chief business; its population Of 10000
inhabitcnts live by it, prosper by it, have
built up Il State upon it. Irrigation is,
| there, universal and extensive the
streams that pour down from the noun
tains are tapped at various elevations, the
water carried away by canals, big and
little, to the gardens and meadows cult
vated, and thence by numerous little
courses, one in three or four feet, spread
over the whole extent, over the z g.an, be-
tween the rows of corn, Of trees, of veg
etables. individuals, villages, companies
perform this work, as a less or greater
scale of it is required.
The water is apportioned among the
takers according to their land, or their
payments. Each one gets his share; and
when the supply is scant, as is often the
case, each one suffers in like degree Salt
Lake City is thus irrigated, mainly from
one mountain stream; bright, sparkling
brooks course freely and constantly down
its paved cutters, keeping the shades trees
alive and growing, supplying drink for
anmrls and water for household purposes.
and delightfully."- cooling the summer air,
besides being drawn of in right proper
ton for the use of each garden Once n
week is the rule for thus watering each
crop; to-day a man takes enough for one
portion of his garden tomorrow for
another; and so through his entire pos
sessions and the week. Under this regu-
lar stimulus, with strong soil, the wash
of the mountains, the finest of crops are
obtained-the vegetable boitom-lands of
your own Connecticut and Of the west
ern praries cannot vie with the product
Of the best gardens and farms of these
Pacific valleys, under this system of ir-
rigation There needs to be rain enough
in the spring or winter moisture remain
ing to start the seeds. and there generally
is; after that, the regular supply of wa
ter keeps the plants in a steady and rapid
growth th,t may well be supposed to pro-
duce far finer results than the struggling,
uneven progress Of vegetation under de-
pcndence upon the skies-a week or a
month of rain, and then like prolonga-
ton of sunshine.
The gardens in the cities and villages
are tropical in their rich greenne,s and
luxuriance. do not believe the same
space of ground in the country anywhere
else holds so much and so fine fruit and
vegetables as the city Of Salt Lake to-day.
The soil of these valleys is especially fav-
orable TO the small grains. Fifty and SIX
ty bushels is very common crop of oats,
wheat and barley; and over ninety have
been raised. President Young once rails
ed SO IL bushels of wheat on a single
acre | should say the same soil, located
in the East, and taking its chances with
out irrigation, would not produce hall
what it does here with irrigation. Labor
orious and expensive as the process must
be, the large crops and the high prices
obtained for them make it pay. Over all
this country, that is forced TO have an ir-
rigated farming, there is no business now
that pays SO well, not even mining; and
nowhere else in the whole nation is agri-
culture % profitable. But the mountain
SHOWS do not provide half the water the
valleys need Many broad and beauti-
ful valley goes unredeemed from dry,
half barren vegetation, for the lack o.
water to be put upon il. Salt Lake City
has exhausted its present supply, and now
contemplales n grand canal from Utah
Lake. thirty miles off, to provide water
for its extending gardens and the wide
valley below and beyond the city-tht
most of which is now only poor and
growing poorer pasturagc, but which with
irrigation will become as productive far
ming land as lies under the shadow OF
the Republic.