THE DRY FARMING CO^TGRESS, 



201 



my grandfather and father, who passed through this section of the coun- 

 try in 1847, my father returning to the frontier at Council Bluffs that 

 year, and my old grandfather having charge of the fort established in 

 Salt Lake City, while Brigham Young and the others' returned to the 

 east that they might lead other colonists into that section of our land. It 

 was not my good fortune to have been born until 1848, but during the 

 summer of 1849 in the company of my parents I wended my way across 

 this continent and took the first step I was ever known to take by my- 

 self standing at the side of a wagon tongue on the banks of the Green 

 river. From that day until the present in the development and growth 

 of this great land of ours it has ever been a joy to me in noting the 

 movements and efforts necessary to the conquering of the soil, and our 

 first efforts in Utah were very crude ones, for we had no knowledge 



Irrigation. 



in regard to this question of irrigation. The results of those first efforts 

 were such that the grain was grown on the ground, became so full and 

 big after having been covered with water that it was necessary to puU 

 up the grain by the roots and thresh it out with flails, — and the result 

 of this condition was such that the grain itself was badly mixed with 

 dirt and didn't afford the best class of food. 



Utah Development. 



"The growth and development of Utah, and Utah then comprehended 

 a large portion of our country, was a constant struggle with the elements 

 to secure that which was necessary to our good. The flights of grass- 

 hoppers over the land and destroying our crops, reduced the people 

 almost to death's door. Strong and stalwart men staggered to their 

 work in their effort to secure a little food for their children, and I re- 

 member one of these experiences when but a child that the food that 

 was eaten in my mother's home was simply bran porridge, and when the 

 children were compelled to live upon this class of food you can readily 

 comprehend the straits to which mothers of families and fathers of 

 families were reduced. But there came a change. The spirit of improve- 

 ment, the onward movement possessed the people of that section and the 

 discovery of gold in the west by Mr. Marshall and his associates. Among 

 his associates who were digging back there were members of my own 

 faith, who had gone to the west and who endured the experiences 

 necessary to that travel from the coast to New Mexico and Arizona and 

 into southern California, and it is said a man by the name of Bigler 

 threw out the first of that metal which Marshall recognized as gold and 

 announced his wonderful discovery to the world. The flight to the land 

 by miners seeking the phantom gold was a relief to the western country, 

 and especially I believe to the people of my own faith, for in many in- 

 stances having reached that point where they were convinced that it 

 was impossible to raise a crop at the time of year they were there, many 

 disposed of their outfits, horses and wagons, or exchanged their horses 

 tor horses that were in better flesh and pushed on that they might be 



