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Show 140 SOIL- WATER- IRRIGATION. great to entitle the present Territory of Utah to demand from the General Government admission into the Union as one of the sovereign States of the confederacy, and thus to secure to themselves unmolested the right to carry out in practice the peculiar principles of their creed. That their wishes in this respect will be shortly realized may be considered certain. Let us now look for a moment at the sources which can be made available for the sustenance of a population so numerous as it is thus confidently anticipated will ere long be congregated within the limits of the " Basin State." Situated so far inland, without water communication with any part of the continent, and isolated by the very nature of the surrounding regions, it will readily be seen that the new State must necessarily depend, in a great measure, for - its support, upon means within itself. Agriculture and the raising of stock must therefore be the principal basis of its prosperity. For both these purposes the country which they have settled is, fortunately, well adapted. The land available for the first of these objects, though limited in extent when compared with the vast deserts which intervene, is still ample for the support of a large, though not very dense population. Owing to the almost total absence of rain, from May to October, the dependence of the farmer must be entirely upon irrigation. The means for this are supplied from the reservoirs of snow which accumulate in the gorges of the mountains, furnishing, during the whole of the summer, abundant and never- failing streams, which assume in some instances the character of rivers of considerable magnitude. The soil, formed chiefly from the disintegration of the feldspa-thic rock, mixed with detritus of the limestone, of which the mountains are principally composed, is of the most fertile character. Owing to its loose and porous texture, it absorbs water very readily and in large quantities. Consequently, the streams which come rushing down the mountain- sides, when they reach the plain below, begin to dwindle into insignificant rivulets, and soon sink and are entirely lost. Many never reach the base of the mountain at all, being absorbed by the soil; and even in the islands of the lake there are to be found, near the summits, roaring torrents, which, ere making half the descent of the mountain, so completely disappear as to leave not even a dry bed or channel to show they had ever reached the water below. Cultivation is therefore circumscribed within very narrow limits, being generally restricted to a strip of from one to two miles wide, along the base |
