DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



161 



ing out from these mountains were not considered as of srfficient impor- 

 tance to find a place upon the maps. 



The greatest body of lands included in this unredeemed section is 

 the Escalante Valley, stretching from its northeast to its southwest limits 

 over a hundred miles through southern Utah. 



Rimmed upon all sides by towering mountains this valley with its 

 splendid climate could support the population of a state, yet with the 

 exception of a few acres developed by irrigation systems and here and 

 there the ranch of a persevering dry-farmer, it is actually as virgin soil 

 as that which surrounds the north pole. 



The mountain barriers which fringe this great Escalante give to it a 

 watershed of millions of acres from which but a small percentage has 

 been appropriated to the use of man by means of conservation and the 

 diversion of mountain streams. 



For long decades this vast expanse has spread out its hundreds of 

 thousands of acres to the storms of winter and the glare of summer sun 

 almost unpeopled save when cattlemen and sheepherders drove their stock 

 down into the bottom of this great intermountain plateau for winter f orage, 

 the weather of the mountains or the scarcity of upland fodder having 

 rendered such a move a necessity. 



The Escalante Valley, Utah, was attractive to homeseekers throughout 

 the country by reason of the unusual opportunities offered settlers. Most 

 of the land in this section has been thrown open for^ entry under the 

 provisions of the enlarged Homestead Act; the government offering to give 

 tc the settler 320 acres of land. This district embraces an area in Beaver 

 and Iron Counties extending about 90 miles north and south, 40 miles 

 east and west and embracing a territory of approximately 2 x /2 million 

 acres of land. 



In the time when old Lake Bonneville stood near its highest level the 

 Escalante Valley constituted a shallow bay of- that lake. The flat surface 

 of the valley like that of the Sevier Valley and of the Salt Lake Valley, 

 is typical of ancient lake topography. 



The soil varies in character as has been shown by analysis and as 

 is evidenced by the variation in native vegetation. On the bench lands 

 and along the borders sage brush is found, but in the low places grease 

 wood and shad scale predominate. The precipitation varies as much as 

 does the soil and there is also considerable seasonal variation in the pre- 

 cipitation from year to year. The lowest precipitation recorded in the 

 valley was for 1902 at Modena, when but 5.09 inches fell and the highest 

 precipitation recorded was at Enterprise during 1911, when 23.52 inches 

 of precipitation fell. The following table gives annual precipitation in 

 the Valley at three points, though the record is by no means complete: 



