33 



and the best drought-resistant crops. The Kaffir corns are too late 

 ripening for this locality. So far corn (maize) has not done well on 

 account of the altitude (5,000 feet), cold nights in summer, and the 

 drought. 



The station is well situated, and when trees are planted will have a 

 pleasing aspect. In the State of Colorado the typical dry-land sections 

 are to be found between the Platte and Arkansas Kiver, an area of about 

 16,000,000 acres. Here the rainfall varies from 13 to 20 inches per 

 annum. 



Leaving Akron, I returned to Denver by the 2.15 p.m. train, and 

 left next morning for Utah. It would be a great convenience, both for 

 the staff and visitors, if the Akron Station had telephonic communication 

 with the railroad station — a distance of only four miles. 



During my visit the Mondell Bill came into force, which gives 320 

 acres to each settler who resides for a period of five years in this part of 

 the State, and the Land offices were crowded with eager applicants. There 

 is but little doubt that this whole country will be rapidly developed by 

 these settlers, who, for want of funds, have been unable to get a foothold 

 in the wealthier sections of America. 



Through the Deserts of Utah. — I left Denver at 8 a.m., on the Denver 

 and Eio Grande. It was a clear, crisp morning, and the journey all day 

 was most enjoyable. Shortly after noon we reached Canon City and 

 entered the Eoyal Gorge. It is indeed a worthy name for a mountain 

 glen of such grandeur. The towering rocks which hung trembling in 

 mid-air seemed ready at the merest touch to dash the train into the 

 stream below. At Tennessee Pass we gained the highest point on the 

 railroad — 10,240 feet above sea-level — and all day were in full view of 

 the sublime snow-mantled peaks. Then descending we traversed the 

 sage-brush deserts of Utah and passed through the glittering Watsatch 

 mountains into the famous Salt Lake Valley. It Avould be hard indeed 

 to find a more lovely farming region in the whole world. It was here 

 that the Utah pioneers made first use of those waters which come from 

 the eternal snows, and it is here that they have developed the science of 

 irrigation to a high degree. Fat cattle, green alfalfa (lucerne) fields, 

 blossoming orchards, well-tilled lands, and thrifty homesteads all testify 

 to the agricultural prosperity of this region. 



I reached Salt Lake City about 1 p.m., and the same day sought out 

 Professor Lewis A. Merrill, who, along with Dr. Widtsoe, has done so 

 much to promote the arid-farm movement in Utah. Mr. Merrill is the 

 editor of the Deseret* Farmer, manager of the Utah Arid-farm Company, 

 superintendent of the State Experimental Arid-farms. Director of the 

 State Farmers' Institutes, and formerly Professor of Agronomy in the 

 State Agricultural College. It will thus be seen that he is a man of wide 

 and varied activity. Mr. Merrill is a native of Utah, and a graduate of 

 the Utah and the Iowa State Agricultural Colleges. 



In the pages of the Transvaal Agricultural Journal I have previously 

 spoken of the splendid pioneering work in dry-farming which has been 

 done by the people of Utah during the past twenty odd years : so at the 

 present time I need only allude to the experimental work on the State 

 farms. Six arid experimental farms have now been established on the 



* A Mormon word meaning little desert. 



