WATER SUPPLY. 77 
If the increase of water supply is due to a progressive change of 
climate forming part of a long cycle, it is practically permanent, and 
future changes are more likely to be in the same advantageous direction 
than in the opposite. The lands now reclaimed are assured for years to 
come, and there is every encouragement for the work of utilizing the exist- 
ing streams to the utmost. 
And finally, if the increase of water supply is due to the changes 
wrought by the industries of the white man, the prospect is even better. 
Not only is every gain of the present assured for the future, but future 
gain may be predicted. Not alone are the agricultural facilities of this 
district improving, but the facilities in the whole Rocky Mountain Region 
are improving and will improve. Not only does the settler incidentally 
and unconsciously enhance his natural privilege, but it is possible, by the 
aid of a careful study of the subject, to devise such systematic methods as 
shall render his work still more effectual. 
FARMING WITHOUT IRRIGATION. 
The general rule that agriculture in Utah is dependent on artificial 
irrigation finds exception in two ways. First, there are some localities 
naturally irrigated; and, second, there is at least one locality of which the 
local climate permits dry farming. 
Along the low banks of many streams there are fertile strips of land, 
The soil is in every such case of a porous nature, and water from the 
stream percolates laterally and rises to the roots of the plants. Nearly all 
such lands are flooded in spring time, and they are usually devoted to hay 
as an exclusive crop; but some of them are above ordinary floods and are 
suited for other uses. It rarely happens, however, that they are farmed 
without some irrigation, for the reason that the use of the convenient water 
render the harvest more secure and abundant. 
The same fertility is sometimes induced by subterranean waters which 
have no connection with surface streams. In such cases there is usually, 
and perhaps always, an impervious subsoil which retains percolating water 
near the surface. A remarkable instance of this sort is known at the western 
base of the Wasatch Mountains. A strip of land from 20 to 40 rods broad, 
