568 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
runs through avery pretty valley for twenty to twenty-five miles, which 
averages seven or eight miles in width. The greater portion of this 
area can be irrigated, and would produce good crops. The Uintah Val- 
ley is more extensive, and has in it some very good land, a large por- 
tion of which may be rendered suitable for culture by irrigation, for 
which purpose the supply of water is ample. 
CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. 
Within the Territory of Utah, every grade of climate, from the cold 
regions of the snowy Sierras te the semi-tropical region of the southern 
plains, is to be found, but the central portion, where the greater part of 
the cultivable land is situated, has a mild climate, corresponding very 
nearly to that of the middle States. Going north and northeast, as- 
cending the mountain valleys, the climate increases rapidly in severity, 
and the growing seasons become shorter. Generally the annual fall of 
snow in the valleys is small, seldom more than a few inches in depth, 
and it remains on the ground but a few hours, or days at the farthest. 
a the vicinity of the higher mountains there are occasional injurious 
rosts. 
Wheat, oats, potatoes, and fruit are the principal productions, which 
grow readily and yield abundant crops of the best quality, the soil be- 
ing naturally adapted to their culture. Over one million bushels of 
wheat were raised in the Territory in 1866, but the ratio of inerease 
since that time has not been in proportion to the breadth of land sown, 
as the grasshoppers have been very destructive for the past three years. 
Not only have they injured the growing wheat, oats, &c., but where the 
ground has been replanted for other crops they have in some instanees 
cut the plants down for the sixth time in one season. The average 
yield of wheat per acre, in favorable seasons, is twenty-two to twenty-six 
bushels, but in certain localities it will reach much higher figures. 
Cache, San Pete, and Utah Counties are the principal wheat-growing 
sections, not because they produce more to the acre, but because a 
greater area has been cultivated in this cereal in these counties than in 
others. Itis probable that the superior flavor and lightness of the 
bread made from wheat grown in this Territory are partly due to the 
alkali with which the soil of the valleys is more or less impregnated. 
As is generally the case throughout the Rocky Mountain regions, 
oats grow luxuriantly, the average yield per acre in the Territory being 
thirty to forty bushels. It is no uncommon occurrence for the farmer 
to cut an average crop of sixty bushels to the acre. Although a large 
amount of corn is raised, and crops of forty to fifty bushels to the acre 
are produced, this cannot be considered a good corn-growing country. 
There are many places where tolerably good crops can be raised, suffi- 
cient to supply local demands, but the corn does not compare favorably 
with that of the Mississippi Valley. 
Sorghum grows finely, and itis probable that in this dry soil, con- 
sisting principally of silicates, and containing alkali, the production of 
saccharine matter will be greater than in soil having a larger propor- 
tion of vegetable mold. Whether beets, which grow large and fine in 
this part of the West, will produce a large per centage of sugar, has not 
been thoroughly tested on an extended scale. 
Apples, plums, pears, peaches, currants, gooseberries, grapes, &c., 
can be raised in Salt Lake Basin and south with ease, but apples and 
peaches, especially the latter, will be the chief horticultural product. 
The average yield of peaches to the acre, as shown by the returns, is 
over three hundred bushels; and last year a lot in Provo, twelve rods 
