596 FOREST EESOUECES OF UTAH. 



accouut for the increasiufj volume of water in the Great Salt Lake in 

 recent years.* 



The trees first planted for shade and ornament in the streets of Salt 

 Lake City were the native narrow-leaf cottouwood, which in late years 

 Lave been attacked and to a large extent destroyed by a borer. A few of 

 the broad-leaf species were planted, and these have suflered in like man- 

 ner. In recent plantings, the cottonwoods have been altogether neg- 

 lected, and many avenues of this tree are being replaced by other kinds, 

 the black locust having preference, as regards number planted, although 

 the honey-locust thrives extremely well, makes a finer-shaped tree, and 

 produces a timber of better quality. The white and black mulberry, 

 white and red elm, balm of gilead, ailanthus, and catalpa are found to 

 thrive, and the box-elder grows with great luxuriance. The soft maples, 

 and the sugar-maple grow but slowly, and for this reason are not regarded 

 with favor. Most of the fruit-trees of the temperate zone are cultivated 

 by aid of irrigation with great success.^ 



The reader is referred to an address by Prof. Paul Chadbourne (now 

 l^resident of William's College), before the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture (Report for 1871, p. 61), for many interesting details concerning 

 irrigation, &c., in Utah. 



Instances are mentioned of settlements being commenced in Southern 

 Utah where the supply of water appeared scarcely sufficient for more 

 than three or four families, but as the soil came to be cultivated the sup- 

 ply increased, so that now from fifty to a hundred lamilies find support. 

 These instances the leaders of the Mormon church claim of the fulfill- 

 ment of prophecy, and an evidence of Divine favor. As facts, they can 

 only be explained by attributing these changes to the conditions brought 

 about by cultivation and planting. The amount of tree culture is not 

 sufficient to account for any notable difference in climate, and the 

 meteorological records of the Territory are too few and for too short a 

 ]ieriod to show any definite laws of climate. The average rain-fall at 

 Camp Douglas, 3 miles east of Salt Lake City, from a series of records 

 kept 10 years, is 18.87 inches. The months in the order of greatest 

 rain-fall are: May, 3.02 ; December, 2.58 ; January and March, each 2.21 ; 

 February, 1.38; April, 1.90; October, 1.22; November, 

 September, 0.77; August, 1.70, and June, 0.G2 inches. 



The timber-line in the Uinta Mountains is 11,000 feet above tide; 

 below this these mountains are covered with a dense forest very much 

 interspersed with small openings of meadow.^ 



'The facts relating to this increase, its causes, and the periods of its fluctuatiou, if 

 snch exist, belong to other departments of investigation. It is sufficient hereto notice, 

 that there can be no denial that the waters of the lake are now less salt than when 

 settlement began, and some 12 feet deeper than in 1861. 



* It is to bo regretted that we have not sufficient instrumental records to show the 

 foundation for the popular belief that the climate of Utah is now more moist and the 

 temperature more uniform than it was thirty years ago. It is thought that showers 

 are more frequent in summer than formerly, and corn is now raised in places where it 

 was once liable to be killed by late spring frosts. The dews are now more abundant, 

 and there is manifestly greater humidity in the climate than when this region was a 

 desert. 



The borders of the valley clearly mark the levels of the lake in ancient limes 

 as much above the present ; and looking out, on a winter's morning, from the elevated 

 site [of Camp Douglas], the valley is often seen tilled with lloatiog vapor to the liigh- 

 est level of the old lake-shore, and the valley with its thriving cities and settlements, 

 and the bases of the surrounding mountains, are submerged, as it were, a thousand feet 

 under water, forming a perfect image of the ancient scene. — {Report on the Ili/gicne of 

 the United Slates Army. Circnlar No. 8, 1875, p. 338. Report of Surgeon E. P. Vollum") 



^Capt. W. A. Jones, United States engineer, in a Eejjort upon tlie Reconnaissance of 

 Northwestern Wyoming, p. 48. 



