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Frontier Utah under what you could afford to do. When travelling in Pitsburgh I found that in this American Birmingham they were making turns" &c. indeed everything tended to confirm me in the propriety of the step I have taken; I would add & Uncle will draw his own infer- ences; that New York is a most fascinating place that a person may live luxuriously upon 6 or 700 Dollars a year, that money is worth 7 Pr Ct p Anm : for those who like refined society, good & cheap exhibitions, the best oysters in the world, & to live in a picturesque & beautiful Country, this is the place;" as for myself I have ceased to look to the future but it was my ambittion to purchase with Californian gold, a pretty cottage situated in the midst of peach & apple orchards & within sight of the glorious Bay & then in the society of my dear Father & Sisters whom I hoped to persuade to venture across the mighty deep, to make a Heaven in this world; this may be yet, but I cheerfully leave all in the hands of the wisest disposer of all events our Father who art in Heaven. I trust that James will learn some practical trade George already knows one, since I have been in America I have often been tempted to exclaim would to Heaven I had been a carpenter, a Clerk in the wilderness is a poor tool & none are so independent as those who have learnt some useful mechanical trade, I do not think that either of them will settle in poor overtaxed old England & I may at some future period point out the way by which they can by their own honor- able exertions gain an independence, I should like James to learn farming, Cousin John would be perfectly at home here, what do you think of 80 bushels of wheat to the acre, corn, vines the most delicious melons and other fruits & vegetables will grow in pro- fusion2 & myself owning a City lot Costing $I,50 could upon this lo Hudson no doubt is referring to lathes, also known as "turns." ii It is interesting to speculate that Hudson was here engaging in a play on words as he attached Brigham Young's famous phrase for Salt Lake Valley to a description of New York City. But one must be entirely objective and conclude that the young Englishman meant just what he said when he referred to New York as "this is the place." l2 Hudson may have been too extravagant in his estimate of eighty bushels of wheat to the acre, although some early enthusiasts would have agreed with pioneer Orrin I? Rockwell that "some of the ears of wheat are from 6 to 8 inches long" and the writer in the Journal History who reported that all grains and vegetables could be raised better in Salt Lake Valley than "in any place any of us ever saw." Calvin Taylor, a non-Mormon passing through the valley in August 1850, wrote, "The harvest is abundant, yielding from 72 |
