THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



the price of the land. In this locality unimproved lands 

 with water cost from ten to thirty dollars per acre. The 

 raising of grain and hay is profitable because of the de- 

 mand which the stock industry furnishes for these pro- 

 ducts, while the culture of peaches, apricots, apples, 

 and prunes seems promising. These fruits have been 

 raised successfully for forty years in the more sheltered 

 valleys and foot-hills of central Utah, and the later or- 

 chards are being gradually extended farther out upon 

 the desert. 



A promising region now almost wholly undeveloped is 

 the Uinta country, surrounded by the mountains of that 

 name and lying directly east of Salt Lake City. Here a 

 great Indian reservation will soon be opened to settle- 

 ment, and plans have already been made to reclaim and 

 colonize the most attractive parts of the district. This 

 will be done by the Mormon methods, which have been so 

 successfully applied throughout the mtermountain re- 

 gion. Settlers will be organized into companies con- 

 structing their own canals by combined labor and di- 

 viding the farms and village lots under an equitable 

 arrangement. Thus the land will cost the government 

 price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, plus a 

 certain amount of labor in making improvements. The 

 Uinta country is rich, not only in agricultural land, but 

 in minerals, timber, building-stone, asphalt, and other 

 useful resources. It is now remote from railroads, but 

 its settlement and development must inevitably lead to 

 the construction of the iron highway. The deserts in 

 eastern Utah within reach of the Green river, and in 

 southern Utah in the neighborhood of the Colorado and 

 Virgin rivers, have but begun to feel the influence of 



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