The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-03-11
UTAH FARMING PRODUCTIVE,


snow in the mountains and the reports that the
is fully deep as last year 1t Is the snow III
the mountains which counts for irrigation pur-
poses. The mountains the storehouse from
which the supply is drawn during the hot summer
months, long after the snow III the valleys has
melted. During the spring months there is plenty
of water, the i'll the valleys and lower foot
hills is melting, and the water goes to waste. The
warm weather which we have had during February,
followed by frosts, has put coat OF Ice over the
snow in the mountains, which will serve to keep 1t
still longer from melting thus making it available
later in the summer when most needed to ripen
| crops.
The system of irrigation for raising crops, first
put i'll practice by the early pioneers of Utah, has
been developed into great science with wonderful
results The ground in the valleys, covered with
sagebrush, apparently desert waste, found
to be the most fertile in the world when supplied
with water. The soil is practically an alluvial de-
post, which has been accommodating for countless
ages, and if given drink of water during the hot
summer months, it shows it appreciation by yield
ing crops so phenomenally large as to be almost be-
yond belief. The eastern farmer, depending upon
casual rainfall, and harvesting crops which there
considered good, but here would be considered
meager, would shake his head i'll disbelief, when
told that tab lands yield sugar beets to the value
of $3.50 per acre. small fruits $500 to $500 per acre.
wheat $50 10 $40 per acre. potatoes 900 bushels per
acre. onions, 1100 bushels and other crops in like
proportion. He would not be able to understand
how with twenty acres of land in Utah
could, after supporting his family and paying all
e1O
very thing is done in Utah. year after year. 1t is
not only the fertility of the soil which makes it pos
sible but the further fact that in Utah the farmer
practically make it rain whenever he wants to-
In other words, he turn on the water in the irri
cation ditch and the crops get the benefit of
copious rain, just at the right time. When they
have had enough the water is turned off. Thus by
little Ingenuity, what apparently drawback
Is turned into advantage. The fact that it does
not rain at all to speak of during the summer
months, was at first considered an insumountable
obstacle to the successful raising of crops This
feature, however, is great advantage once irriga
ton is established because there is no danger of
Hoods or of crops getting too much water. For
instance III the raising of sugar bees; if the beets
get water too soon, the result is large beet with
out enough saccharine matter and if they do not
get it soon enough, the result is a dried up beet
which is alike valueess for sugar making. This |
does not occur in region where there is no rain
fall during the summer, and where there is water
available for irrigation purposes and it accounts
for the successful result of beet sugar raising in
Utah, as against failures in other states
While the farmers of Utah have accomplished |
wonders by the of irrigation yet the system is
only in its infancy. Fully three-fourths of the
precious water, each drop of which is worth money,
goes to waste every spring because there is no way
OF storing 1t up for use when needed during the
summer months. To build reservoirs to store it. is
such an immense undertaking that private indi-
Vduals have not the means to do it, and private
corporations which have undertaken it have not
proved successful as rule. The Utah pioneers now
have the satisfaction of seeing their work taken
up and supplemented by the United States gov
eminent, under the Reclamation Act, whereby the
moneys derived from the sale of public lands will
be used for the construction of storage reservoirs
the expense to be gradually paid back by the lands
to be benefited This work is now under wav and
takes considerable time to complete it.
But Uncle Sam does not do things halfway, and
country will be Transformed By storing up the
water, instead of 100000 acres under irrigation.
as at present, there will be over 100000; and,
Welding crops in the same abundance as the pres
ent cultivated area yields, Utah will be the fore
most state in the Union in agriculture and horti-
culture The crops raised in the valleys will more
han make up for the room taken up by the noun
tains, which will still go on yielding their many
Millions in metals and furnishing profitable mar
zet for all the crops that can be raised The popula
ion of the state will necessarily be quadrupled be-
cause, with twenty acre farms each supporting a
family and leaving a handsome balance the rural
districts will be thicky populated, which in turn
will create such demand for manufactured arti-
les of all kinds, that factories can be proftably
conducted in the cities employing thousands of
Vorkmen. The new interurban electric lines being !
uilt will facilitate the moving of crops and carry
ng OF merchandise These different factors. work
ng slowly but surely to the end, make the out
ook for Utah very bright indeed.
THE WAR IN THE EAST.