Year: 1859

| VI
it is important as we'll as interesting to
consider, what are the natural capacities
and resources of the regions Immediately
adjacent to our borders. If they are fitted
for early settlement, the period of our isola-
ton will be but short, and we may conn


IDENTIFY anticipate the future by such works
of public utility as might not be undertaken
if it were believed that our State would
never be surrounded by kindred sovereign
ties Oregon has already solved the prob
lem to the north of US, with her fifty thou


sand fixed inhabitants ranking as the second
Pacific State, and sending abroad the pro


ducts of her generous soil. Western Utah
is trying to solve it to the east of US, with
her argentiferons and auriferous lodges and
her numerous cattle ranges. In her success
we are now chiefly interested. Her mineral
wealth is considered by some provdentia


discovery, without which but slow progress
would have been made in healthy colonial
tion. Deposits Of the precious metals alone,
will not, however, suffice to effect this end.
If the quantity of her tila be soil is meager,
or INADEQUATE to supply the home demand
for such food staples as ought to be raised
by every people for themselves, the new ter
ritory cannot, for generations to come, attain
position of greatness for herself or true
Usefulness to US. Let us briefly enquire
what are her chances in this regard


Many Californians who visited Western
Utah previous to thepreSent season, attracted
ththerward by curiosity Or tie stronger in
centive Afforded by marvellous silver dscov-
cries, returned from their trip anathcmatiz-
ing the eastern slope as sterile region, ut
tery worthless but for its resources Of min
eral. The contrast between the luxuriant
timber growths and fertile hill-sides and val
leys of this State, with the comparatively
naked mountain ranges, parched declivities
and sage brush intervales of the country on
the other side, is so marked that the latter
could not but suffer in comparison and be
utterly condemned by those who gave The
subject no further consideration. The gilt
ter of mineral riches has always blinded ad-
vcnturers to the more estimable features of
a new country. Even California was not
rightly appreciated for many years, and is
hardly so now. The lower valleys are now
occupied by an agricultural population. who,
in spite Of the great curse Of unsettled
land dtitles have carried the State far on the
road to real, lasting prosperity; and even
the despised mountain lands are asserting
for themselves "a higher worth than that Of
the metals they contain. This statement
will apply, with some notifications, to
there, is of course much less than is con


tanned within the same area here; but it is
not incohsiderable, and by All energetic
people could be much increased. The sys-
tenn of small valleys extending along tie en-
tire eastern slope Of the Sierra Nevada, and
from thence to the great plains-watered
by rivers, brooks and springs, and abound
ing in the salts requisite for maintaining the
vigor of soils-would alone save the quasi
territory of Nevada from the curse of ster-
ility under which unthnking travellers have
placed it. These valleys-in which, at no
very remote period, flashed the still waters
of fresh or salt lakes, while the effects of
recent volcanic action were visible in smok-
ing cones and rugged desolaton around
them-will ere long bear large fields OF
grain, whose green or golden surface, in
spring or summer, will laugh to the sky in
ripping light and shade. They are now
mostly given up as grazing meadows to the
exhausted cattle of the emigrant, and have
been titled barely enough to test their ca
pacity Elaborate cultivation is moi needed
to make them yield fifty bushels of wheat to
the acre, five or six hundred bushels of po-
tatoes to the same amount of ground-some
of them weighing four pounds piece
one hundred bushels of maize TO the acre,
beets tneasurihg three feet in circumference,
carrots one foot Iii circumference, heavy
crops Of tsehder obions, squashes, melons,
and atiy other Find Of vegetable desired
The valleys are sittated several thousand
feet above the sea, have dry agreeable eli
mate, and the winter SHOWS continue on tie
earth but short time. The brown naked
hills surrounding them, Which look so worth
less to the Californian, are not so in fact.
The soil on them is deep, formed by the de-
composition of quartz, sandstone and vol
canic rocks, with frequent mineral admix-
ture from extinct springs, and bears at the
proper season kind of bunch grass which
cattle prefer to that growing in the bottoms.
These hills can be made available for NUT
ton and wool growing. Sheep could be
raised on them without much more trouble
than would be necessary to protect them
from the storms of winter, and this protec-