The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-06
WHILE WYOMING WAS GIVEN
FULL SWING IN FIRST CALL.
Hawaii May Have to Declare War
Against Spain In Order to Sell
Coal to American Transports.
Washington Office of The Herald,
: 1415 G. Street, N. W.

shown by the governing censusl SENDS
II companies to the war. This includes,
of course. the rough. riders. Onder the
call for troops Wyoming was entitled TO
but 235 men. Utah was held down 10 her
original quota, except for the Iorrey
troopers. fssshe could have been per
portion to Wyoming, she might have
furnished 60 companies in all, Tor her
population bears such relation TO that Oh
! Under these circumstances it is not too
much to hope that under the second call
! the state may at least have opportunity
to furnish a considerable number OF com
panies to the engineer regiment ana 10
| the cavalry regiment which may De re-
| cruited by Senator Lee Mantle.
The different sections OF OtahS con,
be widely separated. This is big, round
world, and the East and West Indies are
many thousands OF miles apart me
J chances at present are that the rough
riders will be doing business in Cuba long
before the Utah boys are landed IN the
/ Philippines.
| troops raised under the second call are 10
| be distributed. among the states. But
there is a very strong Dropapl that
many of them will be utilized. TO NIL eX-
listing regiments and companies to the
! maximum, instead of adding to the num-
Der of regiments. 1t has been erroneous
! ly assumed that under the second call
! Utah would be asked for troops IN the
| proportion that rs is to lbs of those furn-
| ished under the first cali. But this is by
| no means the fact.
Senator Cannon says ne IS conndenI
that Utah will fare well under the second
! call, particularly if Colonel Willard Young
| is authorized to recruit a regiment IN the
intermountain country. But TINS VIII pc
Wyoming precedence in enlistmentS
among the Torrey troopers: Colonel
Young will feel exactly as did colonel
Torrey. and that is that his neighbors
! al firSt-OlaS TO have DehlnQ MN
when he goes to war.
There is also some prospect that Utah
will be permitted. under the new can, 10
recruit the major part of battalion, and
thus Governor Wells be given the APP
pointment of the leading battalion OIL
GERS.
The war tariff bill encountered a new
and unexpected obstacle in the Lodge
proposition to annex the HaWalian
Islands. The friends of the proposition
claim that it is absolutely necessary 10
the success of the Dewey relief expedi-
ton that the vessels shall be able to coal
at Honolulu. and this cannot be done
part of the island republic. 1t is also
asserted that the Spanish consul at Homo
lulu will protest against the vessels being
coaled, and that if|this is done. Hawaii
will have to declare war against Spain
in order to legitimatiZe the coaling or the
American vessels. There is no doubt &C
cording to advocates of annexation. that
the little country will willingly do this
to bring about annexation by indirection.
But the annexatiopistS say that II VIII
be a great deal more regular to absorb
the islands outright.
It is not believed in Washington that
the bill can pass with the annexation
paragraph added. Some of the senators
who have been resotute against the selz-
ure of Hawaii say they will talk the an
nexation idea to death, even IL 1t actu-
ally defeats the war tariff.
Milton Whitney, chief of the division or
soils of the department of agriculture,
in imnOrfdnt article for the Depart
ment year book on Interesting Soil
Problems says: GAS a rule, soil prob
easier to study than anywhere else in
the country. The soils themselves are
more uniform in their texture. and the
climatic conditions are more stable Hill
gard has called attention to the fact that
under the conditions prevailing when the
rainfall is scanty, rocks have disintegrat-
ed with comparatively little decomposl-
ton, so that the soil grains are still com
posed of the several minerals of which
the original rock was made up. This dis
indignation has in most cases reached to
a considerable depth and results in soils
having similar physical properties to
great depths. There is seldom differ
ence between the soil and subsoil. as
there is under the more humid climate
of the east The soils generally are silly
in character and contain relatively little
very fine mineral having the properties
of clay.
1.-THE relation of some of these soils to
water and to crops is very remarkable.
They absorb moisture so readily. lose it
through evaporation so slowly, and yet
and abundantly that they can stand long
periods of drought during which the
crops continue to grow without any signs
of suffering for lack of water. These
properties are so marked that if properly
understood they will undoubtedly throw
an important light upon the general prin-
ciDles of the relation of soils to moist
ure. For this reason they are of unusual
interest to students of agriculture and 1t
is hoped that simple presentation of the
subject will arouse an interest in those
who have ready access to the soils in
question and encourage a thorough and
detailed study of the reasons for the eX-
traordnary properties the soils possess.
These facts are not new continues f6ntn fe
vored sections IS as familiar with the
fact that certain soils will withstand
droughts of six months duration as our
eastern farmer is that crops require rain
at intervals of a week or ten days. Hill
gard has in numerous publications called
the attention of the scientific world TO
the facts. They are so unusual, how
ever and so unlike the conditions IN the
eastern portion of our country or of Eu-
rope that too much attention cannot be
drawn to them. nor too much thought
and study be given to the explanation of
the conditions.
Continuing, Prof. Whitney says that
the surface of the Nevada and Utah
desert between Reno and Ogden shows the
same conditions as the Mohave desert in
California. The distance to water varies
according to the nature of the SOIL Just
as it does in the humid portions or the
country. The soil in which the water is
close to the surface, are. as rule, i'm
pregnated with alkali. There is an ar
teSian belt under a portion of the desert
The amount of moisture found in this
land was probably not sufficient to sup
port a crop OF any of our commercial
was alkaline, but the fact of there being
any moisture at all, with no rain for such
a long time is matter of the greatest
surprise. The annual rainfall is between
five and six inches, the seasonal rainfall
about one or two inches on the average.
During the present season there has been
no rainfall since the first of May at Te-
coma, where q careful examination was
made, except a single shower two or
three days before the examination. This
was not sufficient to have penetrated TO
any great extent. The soil here is quite
alkaline, and is covered with an alkali
crust in many places. Boring made to
depth of several feet in this soil showed
that the moist soil extended down to a
considerable depth, probably down to
water level. There was well at this
place about 80 feet deep. 1t is stated that
water can be found on these deserts about
80 feet below the surface, although the
water may be so strongly impregnated
with salts that it is unfit for use. The
average depth of farm wells throughout
the whole of the United States would
probably be not far from 30 feet. How is !
it that these desert soils. 500 miles away
from any considerable. rainfall area, APP
proach the normal conditions in this re-
spect? How is it that with standing
water at about the same depth below the
surface and with hardly a tenth of the
annual rainfall, these soils are still moist
within a comparatively few inches of the
surface after five or six months of dry
weather?
If the amount of water in these desert
lands was supplemented by an amount
which would make the quantity equal to
that contained in the wheat producing
soils already referred to, and If this water
was added al one time during the winter
season, could crops be profitably grown
upon the soils without subsequent irri-
gation2 These and various similar ques-