The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-08-29
UfdhS Resources Hnd
Possibilities

Utah is not only locality, 1t is
type. 1t cannot be defined by merely
mentioning parallel of latitude we
think OF 1t and love it as the dream
land of Che Mormon people, and as a
region rescued from barrenness and
made a home for hundreds and thou
sands of people. Salt Lake is really |
it's metropolis, but Ogden, Logan and
Provo are prosperous and progressive
cities whose population increases on
ly less rapidly than their ambitions.
One of the first things for a stran-
ger to do is to take his hat off to
our STATE, for Utah Is a pioneer of
irrigation, "A master of dry farming.
a great producer of sugar beets, ex-
ceiling in fruit raising, successful in
dairy products, her soil raises any
thing. The resources of Utah with her
mountains of iron and copper, great
areas of coal, inexhaustible supplies
of salt, mines of gold and silver, oil
in abundance and acres of asphalt are
just becoming known. Its development
is rapid and it is rich empire within
itself. Utah is young state We have
54,300,000 acres or $4,000 square miles
of land in the state; $4,000. 900 acres
are subject to agricultural develop
ment. but of this vast agricultural
area less than one-tenth is cultivated
at the present time. This fact alone
shows the great possibility for agri.
cultural development. More popula.
ton and more intense cultivation Of
the soil is needed. For irrigated farm
ing, the principal rivers of Utah dis.
charge annually a total OF 7,7S5,92I
acre feet of water. according to the
report Of the Utah Conservation Com
mission, with millions of gallons of
subterranean water that will be
brought into use as our population de.
mands. Dry farming has been prac-
ticed since the dawn of civilization in
Egypt and I'm India. The farmers of
Utah have been raising crops on dry
farms with a rain fall of less than
- inches for more than half cen
fury. The beginning of dry farming
in our state occurred through an &C
cident. In 1865 little company of inn
,,,to nfe In ha
valley, and diverted the water from
the Malad river for irrigation pur.
poses. the waters were so heavily la.
den with alkali that in a few years
their lands were so impregnated with
the noxious salts that crops were I'M
able to grow upon them. In despera-
ton the settlers put the plow in the
sage brush ground and planted seed
in the soil that was not to be irrigated
They succeeded in their work and
since then dry farming methods have
become more in vogue every year and
today with the proper method used
tests have been made and 80 to 60
bushels of wheat per acre are pro
duced.
Utah offers special inducements to
prospective settlers under the Enlarg-
ed Homestead Act whereby 800 acres
of arid land can be taken up by one
citizen and title obtained without resi-
dence by simply putting one-half of
the tract under cultivation within five
years Today the product of these dry
farm areas excel in quality that Of
any other class of lands.
The average yield of wheat through.
out the United States for the last ten
years was less than II bushels per
acre, while Utah has produced from
so to S2Ia bushels per acre on irrigat-
ed lands, notwithstanding the fact that
our soils have not been intensely cul-
tivated. We stand second in wheat
production, second in oats, first in
barley. first in alfalfa seed, first in
sugar beets and second in potatoes.
The average yield of oats through
out the United States was 27.7 bush
els per acre. while in our state we
have produced 1873 bushels per acre.
The average yield of potatoes
throughout the United States Is 50
bushels per acre, while Utah produces
an average OF 100 bushels per acre
and has produced as much as 900 bush
els on one acre, and from 700 to 1000