OCR Text |
Show Record I know of grapes and other fruit being grown on that dry farm land. Just this summer I went to a farm which had been farmed seven years, and it is four miles from any ditch. I saw grapes, peach trees and apple trees growing there. It looked like quite a successful orchard. 4370 When the time arrives that that country gets settled up, and farm land is more in demand than it is now, I know of no reason why at least 100,000 acres of that land there, southwest of Elk Ridge, could not be successfully dry farmed. I have ridden in there for ten years. I saw the White Mesa country settle up successfully. I do not know of any reason why the Elk Ridge country could not be settled in the same way. It is the same altitude, 4371 same soil, same vegetation and same formation exactly. I was a first settler on the White Mesa. I was a pioneer there. I saw it build up from nothing to what it is now. G. W. Perkins testified for defendant on direct examination as follows: 4372 I reside at Blanding, Utah. I am cattle man. I have been in the cattle business practically all my life. In the winter time I have run my cattle west of Bluff to a point about ten miles west of Mexican Hat. I have used boats on the San Juan River and have crossed the San Juan River in connection with my cattle operations only. I have crossed the San Juan at various points. I remember the year the San Juan went dry. it was dry from ten days to two weeks, I think. I can only recollect one such 4373 occasion. I went to the San Juan in 1880 and have been riding the range a good deal all the time since I got big enough to do it. I am familiar with the San Juan at Bluff. I have crossed the river there on horseback. I know the place they call Sand Is- 4374 land, right near Bluff. The river is very wide there. I think that is as wide a place on the San Juan as I am acquainted with. I do not remember of crossing the river where it is any shallower |