STEEP TRAILS 



It appears, therefore, that under present 

 conditions the Umit of agricultural develop- 

 ment in the dry basin between the Sierra and 

 the Wahsatch has been ah-eady approached, a 

 result caused not alone by natural restrictions 

 as to the area capable of development, but by 

 the extraordinary stimulus furnished by the 

 mines to agricultural effort. The gathering of 

 gold and silver, hay and barley, have gone on 

 together. Most of the mid-valley bogs and 

 meadows, and foothill rills capable of irrigat- 

 ing from ten to fifty acres, were claimed more 

 than twenty years ago. , 



A majority of these pioneer settlers are 

 plodding Dutchmen, living content in the back 

 lanes and valleys of Natiu-e; but the high price 

 of all kinds of farm products tempted many of 

 even the keen Yankee prospectors, made wise 

 in California, to bind themselves down to this 

 sure kind of mining. The wildest of wild hay, 

 made chiefly of carices and rushes, was sold at 

 from two to three hundred doUars per ton on 

 ranches. The same kind of hay is still worth 

 from fifteen to forty dollars per ton, according 

 to the distance from mines and comparative 

 security from competition. Barley and oats are 

 from forty to one hundred dollars a ton, while 

 all sorts of garden products find ready sale at 

 high prices. 



158 



