SOLUTION OP THE PROBLEM. 71 



those laws of God which control the whole universe ; and when 

 we do what we ought to do, accept that curse of labor which 

 is a blessing as we are now, the very elements respond to our 

 work, and meet us almost half way, if we only know how (o 

 meet them and take advantage of them. Here, then, in this 

 valley, where Bridger said he would give a thousand dollars for 

 every bushel of corn they would raise, we find that the water 

 is becoming more and more abundant every year, — that the 

 frosts are driven back, — so that many parts of that valley are 

 like the most cultivated parts of New England ; and in a very 

 few years I believe it will be the best cultivated portion of our 

 land. So much for the physical geography of that country, 

 and the changes which have taken place there. The study of 

 those changes will be of very great advantage to us, for you 

 will see at once that the solution of this problem will enable 

 us to judge of the value of immense quantities of land 

 through all that mountain region. That is a matter of very 

 great importance ; not, perhaps, because we want so many more 

 acres of land, but because of the desirability, as was stated 

 here this afternoon, of raising the various articles of food where 

 we want to consume them. When the lumberman goes into 

 Aroostook County to cut down his trees, he must eat ; and if 

 you can raise his food there upon the ground, you make it 

 better for the lumberman and better for the farmer. Now these 

 ranges of mountains are perfectly filled with metals. It is the 

 most wonderful country in the world. And it is of very great' 

 importance that, in connection with such immense mineral treas- 

 ures as those mountains contain, we should be able to know 

 that in every little valley where the water from the melting 

 snow runs down and gathers in springs or in small lakes, if we 

 will take hold and cultivate the land, we shall find the climate 

 continually growing better, and the water increasing in quan- 

 tity, so that we may have near the mines the very things 

 which the miners want to consume. 



Here is one of the things which the Mormons have done : 

 Twenty-four .years ago, last July, they first saw Salt Lake Val- 

 ley — most of it a perfect desert. They came there in poverty, 

 came there persecuted ; for, whatever we may say of their 

 religion, they came there a persecuted people, and in the great- 

 est poverty. As some of them told me, they had to go down 



