AND ITS INHABITANTS 153 



could not raise crops. This difference was due to climate. At 

 first sight the climates of the two regions appear closely 

 similar. Both are dry. Salt Lake City, in the home of the 

 Utes, for example, has an average rainfall of sixteen inches 

 per year. Los Angeles, where lived some of the lowest Cali- 

 fornia Indians, has the same. Santa Fe, in the center of the 

 Pueblo district, receives a yearly average of nearly fifteen 

 inches. Why, then, was agriculture and hence civilization so 

 different in the two types? The answer is found in the 

 season of rainfall. At Santa Fe the months of June, July, and 

 August have an average of 8.4 inches of rainfall, whereas at 

 Salt Lake City the same months average only 2.2 inches, and 

 at Los Angeles are practically rainless. 



Today the greatness of California depends upon its agri- 

 culture more than upon anything else; and the farms of Utah 

 are also by no means to be despised. It must be remembered, 

 however, that wheat, barley, beets, grapes, oranges, and other 

 orchard fruits are the staples of agriculture in these regions. 

 They are raised largely by means of elaborate systems of irri- 

 gation which utilize the winter snows upon the mountains. 

 Where irrigation is not practised, cattle are the great agri- 

 cultural resource. The other foundation of prosperity is 

 mining. All these things are essentially European. The 

 crops which place parts of California and Utah among the 

 world's garden plots did not grow indigenously in America. 

 The cattle and horses which browse on the thousand brown 

 hillsides had no counterpart in the New World. Since iron 

 tools were unknown, the art of mining was impossible. So far 

 as anyone has yet pointed out, the poor Indians had no plants 

 that would serve in place of those with which the early people 

 of the Old World were blessed. The absence of summer rain 

 which is typical of all subtropical climates caused the vegeta- 

 tion to be scanty, and hence wild animals, wild seeds, and fruits 

 were also scarce. Thus the people were condemned to be 



