Markets 



,T^ FINE field of standing grain, an orchard groaning with ripe fruit, a 

 A pen resounding with the discord of fat hogs, or a pasture dotted with 

 \ sleek, healthy cattle, are proper objects of pride to the farmer who 

 ^ produced them. But pride is not necessarily profitable, and the farm 

 products were not grown for that purpose. The farmer's aim is to place them 

 where they will excite desire in others, where the miller, commission merchant 

 and packer may be induced to express their desires in terms of dollars. He 

 must send his products to the markets ; with the aid of the railroad, his markets 

 become world-wide. 



Other conditions being equal, however, the nearest market should be the 

 best, and this applies particularly to livestock, the condition and appearance 

 of which are likely to suffer from long journeys. The Los Angeles packing 

 houses prefer to buy Utah cattle, hogs and sheep, yet they are obliged to go 

 farther, to Idaho and Wyoming, even to Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, 

 for hogs, because the farmers of Utah are not prepared to meet their demands. 

 This statement obtains in the face of the following facts: Alfalfa, the king 

 of forage crops, finds in the arid soil, and in the climate of Utah, ideal condi- 

 tions for growth. Wheat, barley, rye and mangel wurtzels yield generously 

 on both dry and irrigated farms. The climate, with an almost unbroken 

 succession of sunshiny days, makes unexcelled conditions for fattening livestock. 

 Prior to 1905, or, more exactly, before the completion of the Salt Lake 

 Route, the Southern California markets were not available. It has taken 

 the stock-growers some time to perceive the opportunities thus afforded, but 

 there is abundant evidence that they are no longer being ignored. 



AN IRRIGATING DITCH, LAS VEGAS VALLEY. 



