GBNEEAL EEPOET. xlix 



The larger and more constant supply of water from the Wahsatch and 

 Uintas renders possible a much more general improvement of the resources 

 of Utah. The lands at the western base of the Wahsatch, large portions of 

 the valleys of the Bear, Weber, and Provo Rivers, and such of the parks as 

 are not too elevated may all be brought under cultivation. Yet the actual 

 cost of bringing water upon these lands, fencing them and putting them in 

 a producing condition, at the ordinary rates of wages, is said to be nearly fifty 

 dollars an acre. 



For grazing purposes the region is not generally adapted, as is proven 

 by the absence of all graminivorous animals excepting rabbits in the valleys 

 and rarely a few mountain sheep or antelopes in the higher ranges. In the 

 spring and early summer there is a considerable supply of nourishing grass 

 in many localities, but it is not continuous, and for several months forage is 

 very scanty except as scattered through the mountain canons. A substitute 

 for grass is sometimes found in the Eurotia lanata, and some other chenopo- 

 diaceous plants are eaten by sheep. Frdmont and Carrington Islands in Salt 

 Lake are occupied as sheep pastures by the Mormons, though the amount 

 of grass is small and there is a supply of only brackish water for much of 

 the year. 



The possibility of the more general cultivation without irrigation of some 

 forms of perennial or woody vegetation is an interesting question. That there 

 can be to a certain extent a vigorous growth of such plants with only the 

 ordinary natural supply of moisture is certain from the number of prevalent 

 species of this character, and it seems not chimerical to believe that with the 

 necessities of a future more crowded population there will be found either 

 profitable use for these or more serviceable substitutes that shall be equally 

 capable of thriving under the present climatic conditions. 



The source of supply of the moisture by which life is sustained in these 

 plants through the droughts of summer has been a matter of doubt. It has 

 been supposed either that they are in some degree air-plants, drawing the re- 

 quisite moisture from the atmosphere itself, or that the structure of the leaf- 

 surface and the pubescence or glutinous secretion that often covers them 

 prevent in a great measure the usual evaporation of the juices of the plant. 

 It is true that in many of the localities where there is no diminution in the 

 amount of vegetation water cannot be found but by digging to a great depth. 

 At Stockton Station, in a valley 20 miles east of Virginia City, between 

 vii 



