560 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
plains, often destitute of vegetation, and in many places covered with 
saline incrustations. The arable lands of this western section are lim- 
ited to the extreme southeast border. As the entire basin consists of 
smaller basins with distinct water systems, a description of it will be 
better understood by basins and valleys than by arbitrary sections. 
Omitting the broad plains of the northwest, the following are the more 
important of the minor basins: Salt Lake Basin proper, Rush Valley, 
Sevier River Basin, and Beaver River Basin. 
SALT LAKE BASIN PROPER. 
The territory immediately around the lake, and that drained by the 
numerous streams flowing into it, are embraced in this basin. Of these 
streams the principal ones are Bear, Weber, and Jordan Rivers, the last 
ineluding as its tributaries the streams that discharge their waters into 
Utah Lake. 
This basin is nearly two hundred miles in length, and contains one- 
fourth of the entire district, and within its boundaries are to be found 
the choice lands and chief population of Utah. The division is best de- 
seribed by taking the valleys in order, beginning at the north end of the 
lake, moving east, and then south. 
Hansee Spring Valley and Blue Spring Valley lie north of the prom- 
ontory. Their southern portions present a barren appearance, and are 
but thinly covered with vegetation ; the soil is impregnated with salt 
or alkali. The first of these valleys is not supplied with streams suffi- 
cient to furnish water for irrigating purposes, and the principal stream 
in the other is strongly impregnated with saline matter. It is probable 
that some better portions and some small areas susceptible of cultiva- 
tion may be found toward the north, and grass may also be found near 
the mountains. 
The Malade Valley, which extends north into Idaho, is drained by the 
Malade River. It is a tolerably fertile section, and, including the shore 
of Bear River Bay, is about forty miles in length, with an average width 
of five miles. Within its boundaries are about one hundred and fifty 
square miles of irrigable land, with some fine grazing fields in the north- 
ern part. Although‘the Malade River is narrow, it has a sufficient vol- 
yme of water to irrigate all the level land of the valley as far south as 
the “ gate,” or cation, through which Bear River emerges. 
The south end of the valley can be irrigated from this point by the 
latter stream, and it is understood that a project has recently been in- 
augurated to accomplish this. There are several thousand acres in the 
vicinity of Corinne that can be brought under cultivation, and would 
undoubtedly prove quite profitable, theugh a great portion of the land 
near the bay is too much impregnated with saline matter for cultivation. 
Next, on the east, is Cache Valley, which extends north and south 
from the divide between Muddy and Box Elder into the southern bor- 
der of Idaho, and is an expansion of the otherwise narrow valley of 
Bear River. It extends from Paradise to thesmountains above Frank- 
lin, a distance of about fifty. miles, and varies in width from six to six- 
teen miles, with an average of twelve. About one-half of its area, or 
three hundred square miles, can be irrigated and rendered suitable for 
cultivation. The benches and uplands as well as the bottoms, between 
Paradise and Franklin, may be irrigated by digging ditches a few miles 
in length; for, in addition to the river, a number of little streams flow 
into the valley from the Wahsatch Mountains, as follows: Muddy, 
Blacksmith’s Fork, High Fork, Gros Bois Creek, and Logan’s Fork, on 
the east, and Rush Creek from the west. 
