Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-12-27
SUBSTANTIAL PROSPERITY.

|
The year now closing has been a fair.
ly prosperous one for Utah, In n ma.
terial and financial point of view
Crops have been tolerably good. though
not as heavy as they are sometimes
but the prices of agricultural products
have averaged higher than for several
years, Wheat. cattle. hogs and dairy
products this year have brought UNI
usually high prices, and the Utnh
farmer has been proportionately bene-
fitted.
The rsinlng industry, though suffer
ing from the depreciation of silver, has
! not langulshed. 1t has given employ
ment TO as many men, probably. as in
any previous year in the history Of
| Utah. and has witnessed during the
twelve-month the expenditure of vast
sums in development work the CON
struction of mills etc. The figures
showing the output of silver viii be
reasonably satisfactory, while those
showing the amount of gold will he
very much so. In mercantile circles the
year has been only moderately profit
able. Some merchants have made fair
dividends but others have not. The
number of important failures in the
state has been small.
But the downing year promises much
more in the way Of financial prosperity
for Utah than has been realized during
the one now closing. 1t is reasonably
certain that labor of all kinds will find
,,1t, ~. d..
pressed whether sufficient number OF
laborors can he obtained within the
State TO meet the demands Of the enter
prises that are in hand. 1t has been
given out that the Lake Bonneville ir-
rlgation scheme in Willard county will
pny out for labor, within the next
eighteen months, million and half
and for material. half a million dollars.
There are other irrigation enterprises
now under way that win furnish n good
deal of employment, and It is tolera-
bly, certain that 1898 will see substan-
tlal progress made in the construction
of q railroad westward from this city.
The remarkable development of the
dairy industry which has taken place
In this State within the last few years
is furnishing great amount OF lucra-
tive employment to many people in
those parts of the state that are
adapted to 1t. 1t has two great advan-
tages: "a Much of the labor connected
with it can be done by women and
children. the herding, feeding and milk
ing of the cows. and the care
OF the calves being work that
can be divided among and done by
members of the family, young and old;
t2) A small tract of any kind of
land that will produce lucern will en-
able q family to keep cows that will
yield a comfortable living. The profits
Of the dairy business In some of the
counties of this State are surprising
ly large. A Cache county farmer. who
has turned into hay land nearly the
whole of his farm with a view to milk
ing n large number of cows, recently
stated that good average COW would
earn thirty-five dollars per year be-
sides giving her owner calf, which,
when six months old, will bring at
prevailing prices in that county from
ten to fourteen dollars. This means
that the milk given by good average
COW, sold to a creamery, will bring
thirty-flve dollars year, payable In
cash on the first of every month. The
farmer who runs n dozen cows thus
has the wages of laboring man in
addition to the income he may real
lie from crops, poultry, pigs, etc. The
Utah farmer ought not to do any
grumbling at all.
1t is not intended here to represent
that any great boom is on the taps
but only to impart to the readers OF
the News" the assurance that, accord
ing to present indications, an era of
genuine prosperity is upon them. They
can pay their tithes and be good to the
poor in the confident expectation of re-
ceiving the blessings promised those
who do these things, which blessings are
not matters OF faith alone, but are
actually in sight.