72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in the lowlands and dig thistle roots month after month to 

 live. They came there in that condition, and now we have 

 that whole valley teeming with flocks and abounding with corn 

 and the finest fruits that grow anywhere ; all prepared before- 

 hand for those mines that are now opening with such richness 

 all through those mountains. If you take up the papers you 

 will seo very severe things said about the Mormons, because 

 they refused to let their people go into the mines. It is said 

 that they kept them from mining, kept them from riches, etc. 

 But when I look at that people as they are, and remember what 

 they were, and how they came there, it seems to me that the 

 Mormon leaders did not only the wisest but the kindest thing 

 they could do. Suppose they had sent those poor, ignorant 

 people into the mines searching for minerals in the days when 

 they hadn't enough to live upon in the valley, what a poor, 

 miserable set of men you would have had all through that val- 

 ley ! The leaders said, " Your first duty is to cultivate the 

 earth, to raise crops, and lay up a store of corn and wheat — 

 enough for yourselves and your families." They insisted upon 

 that, and the people followed their advice. I do not believe at 

 all in the Mormon system, you understand, but I do believe in 

 the wisdom- of that advice. I believe that the people are richer 

 and happier by far to-day, in consequence of having followed 

 that advice, than they would have been if they had spread 

 through those mountains, digging — they knew not for what ; 

 and left the valley as it was — a desert. They would have been 

 doing the most unwise thing, and we should have had pestilence 

 and famine instead of the plenty we see now everywhere Now 

 the time has come when the mountains can be dug from top to 

 bottom, for food is abundant and cheap. The finest wheat that 

 ever grew is raised in San Pete County, and sold for half a 

 dollar a bushel. 



Perhaps I should say something in regard to the Mormon 

 mode of cultivation. Of course, they depend entirely upon 

 irrigation ; because, when I say that water sometimes falls, you 

 understand that it is not enough, by any means, to insure crops. 

 No crop can be produced, in most of that country, without 

 irrigation. Therefore, no land can be cultivated except that 

 which can be irrigated; and in order to be irrigated, it must 

 have a certain relation to the streams that come out of the 



