194 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



miles; along the 41st and 38th parallels only the Great Salt Lake basin, 

 estimated at one thousand one hundred and eight square miles; and 

 that in New Mexico at seven hundred square miles. 



Experiments made during the fifteen years which have elapsed since 

 the above was written, have shown that about one-third of the entire 

 amount of arable land mentioned can be found in the little triangle be- 

 tween the South Platte and the mountains, in Northern Colorado. 



Startling as the statement may appear to those who have swept 

 across the continent along the barren-looking track of the Union Pacific 

 Railroad, I assert it as my firm conviction that there are but few lands 

 in all this portion of the country which are really unproductive ; that 

 wherever there is soil, if water can be applied to it, it will be found rich 

 in all the primary elements necessary to the production of useful crops 

 of some kind. Without water as a matter of course it cannot be made 

 to yield, and the crops produced will vary with the climate ; but these 

 facts do not affect the position I take in regard to the primitive fertility 

 of the soil. 



As I have heretofore stated that the tests of fertility in the rain- 

 moistened regions would not apply here, the question maybe asked, Upon 

 what is the assertion based that this soil possesses the elements of pro- 

 ductiveness ? Upon numerous experiments, the only means I know by 

 which I could have been convinced of the fact. 



It is only after a careful examination of a vast number of experiments 

 made in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, &c, that I am forced 

 to acknowledge what I before did not believe, viz: that ivherever there 

 is soil in these regions, it is rich in the primary elements of fertility. 



Emory, in his " Eeconnoissance in New Mexico and California," speak- 

 ing of the Moro Valley, says : " The plains were strewed with fragments of 

 brick-dust colored lava, scoriae, and slag ; the hills to the left capped 

 with white granular quartz. The plains are almost destitute of vege- 

 tation ; the hills bear a stunted growth of pinon and red cedar." And 

 although he adds that rain had recently fallen, and that the grass in the 

 bottom was good, yet it fails to obliterate the picture of barrenness he 

 had drawn. But that which wore such a desolate appearance in 1846 is 

 now one of the richest wheat-growing valleys in the whole Territory, 

 its only rival being the Taos Valley, which was once covered with nothing 

 but sage-bushes, (Artemisia,) and was likewise counted as barren and 

 worthless. 



Nestling high amid the snow-crowned granite peaks of the Eocky 

 Mountains lies the little valley of the Upper Arkansas, where we would 

 scarcely expect to find an arable spot. Yet experiment proves that even 

 this elevated place, covered with the rough local drift from the barren 

 metamorphic peaks around it, when irrigated, is productive, and yields 

 rich crops of the cereals, potatoes, &c. The fossil-beanng deposits in 

 the Bridger basin, on account of their worn, washed, and barren ap- 

 pearance, have been compared with the Mauvaises Terres of Dakota, 

 and have generally been considered by travelers utterly worthless in an 

 agricultural point of view ; yet the productive farms along Smith's Fork 

 will suffice, to convince the most incredulous of the error of this opin- 

 ion. Necessity for a supply of fresh vegetables to the mining popula- 

 tion around South Pass has brought out the fact that the valleys along 

 the tributaries of Wind Ri^er will produce fine and abundant crops of 

 all the hardier vegetables. And almost on the mountain crest at Fort 

 Sanders the industrious officers and soldiers of the post have demon- 

 strated the fact that, despite the barren appearance of the soil, the bleak 

 winds of their elevated position, and the early frosts and snows of their 



