PRODUCTIONS — UTAH VALLEY. 141 



of the mountains, beyond which the water does not reach. The 

 extensive phains between the mountain ranges, although composed 

 of soil nearly equal in fertility, are at present useless for the pur- 

 poses of agriculture, from the want of water. The smallness of 

 the area suitable for cultivation is, however, compensated by the 

 prodigious productiveness of the soil, which, together with the cli- 

 mate, is peculiarly favourable to the growth of wheat, barley, oats, 

 and all the cereal grains. I brought with me, for distribution, a 

 portion of a crop of wheat, which had produced, upon three and one- 

 half acres of ground, the enormous yield of one hundred and eighty 

 bushels, from a single bushel of seed. In situations peculiarly 

 favourable for watering, the average yield of all lands properly cul- 

 tivated may be very safely estimated at forty bushels. Maize, or In- 

 dian corn, has not as yet proved so successful, owing to the early 

 frosts occasioned by the vicinity of the mountains ; but beets, tur- 

 nips, melons, and especially potatoes, exceed in increase even the 

 most sanguine anticipations. The quality of the latter is fully 

 equal, if not superior, to the best Nova Scotia varieties. 



On the eastern side of the Salt Lake Valley, the land susceptible 

 of irrigation stretches along the western base of the Wahsatch 

 Mountains, from about eighty miles north of Salt Lake City to 

 about sixty south of it, the latter portion embracing, toward its 

 terminus, the fertile valley of Lake Utah. This is a beautiful 

 sheet of pure fresh water, thirty miles in length, and about ten in 

 breadth, surrounded on three sides by rugged mountains and 

 lofty hills, with a broad grassy valley sloping to the water's edge, 

 opening to the northward. Through this opening flows the river 

 Jordan, by which its waters are discharged into the Great Salt 

 Lake. The lake abounds in fine fish, principally speckled trout, 

 of great size and exquisite flavour, which afi'ord sustenance to nu- 

 merous small bands of Utahs. 



The Jordan, in its passage, cuts through a cross range of moun- 

 tains that divides the two valleys, making a deep canon, in which 

 are rapids. At most seasons of the year a skifi" can be safely 

 floated down these boiling waters, if managed with sufficient skill 

 to avoid striking the projecting rocks. The fall continues abrupt 

 for one mile, and the river could here be led along the escarpment 

 of the western hills as far as to a point opposite the mouth of the 

 Little Cotton-wood, and thence on a curve to Spring Point, at 

 the north end of the Oquirrh Mountain, thus probably bringing 

 under irrigation about eighty square miles of fertile land. 



