OCR Text |
Show 106 it has occurred that all the farming operations have been performed by the employes.5 The qualities of the farm also received his comment: I have endeavored in my last report....to give the Department some definite and adequate idea of the disadvantages incident to this place as a farm, but especially as an Indian farm, where the object is to eradicate old habits and tastes, and superinduce new ones. The broken character of the land, by streams, slough, rocky and alkaline patches, makes it discouraging, even to skilled laborers; much more is it so to those unaccustomed to habits of industry. Though there has been, as I think any one can see, considerable improvement in the appearance and products of this agency, yet I must confess to some disappointment in the result of the last year's labor.6 Before the struggle to found the farm at Uintah was over, the negative assessment of the proposed reservation area by the Mormon party of l86l looked more accurate than the praise of the earlier federal agents. During the spring and summer of 1872, Critchlow and his group planted seventy-five acres of land. The results were better than in previous years, but still failed to produce enough to feed the Indians of the agency. It can be said of his efforts that there was never again serious talk of abandonment of Uintah because of the impossibility of agriculture. Transportation was another matter- Even though the farm and the newly established sawmill were to relfeve part of the problems, 5lbid. 6lbid. |