Show EDITORIAL EXCURSION TO SALT LAKE I 1 SALT nake LAKE CITY aug 14 today to day wo have been the guests of the deseret agricultural and manufacturing society we bovi visited 1 sited the byarm hot sulphur springs about five live miles north of the city the spring comes to the surface at the foot ot of a limestone edge ledge near the road in a powerful ul current of clearwater clear elear water of the temperature of deg dog F baur faur ir the discharge is at least a thousand gallons to the min minute one ca carnot not n bear the hand in the water in the tile pool through which it flows notwithstanding its heat there is iff vegetation at the thi bottom 3 and our botanists secured plants fa for r their collection learer luader the city there is a smaller spring of the same much lower temperature which is much used for bath bathing ing A convenient house has been erected for the purpose and it is a place of popular resort for invalids and others thus early in the history of the city a museum has been established in which a great variety of article articles 3 of historical value are preserved there twe tae re several stone mills of the ute uto indians ill in complete order showing their mode oi of grinding corn also their bows and arrows and the portraits of their cl chiefs alefs there are quite largo large COI eol coli sections of their minerals of tild the woods in the mountains used for timber of their birds and animals and many things brought from foreign lauds by tho the missionaries all tills this is creditable to a young community who have been so busy in their struggle for subsistence A few of us who were interested in fish culture took a nide ride with AA ait P rockwood out to his hia farm some five miles out of town and to tho hatching house of zions co opera tivo uvo fish association the road took us through t veny very fine farms a part of thein them reclaimed from the the swamp and a part of them from the alkali the crops now upon these lands are as fine as anything we have seen in our journe journeying yn g s the process of reclaiming the warm warn has been hy by draining ditches have been sunk several feet below the surface and the dry land and the reclaimed swamp has now a complete system of irrigation we wc saw many wheat fields just ready for the reaper or already in shock that would yield fifty bushels to the acre in some cases the wheat had lodged the valley which extends thirty miles south of the city will average nearly twenty miles in in width between the mountain ranges nearly all the cut cat cultivation I 1 ti as yet is upon the east 0 the jordan which bruns auns tuns from urail utah lake into tiie tile the salt lake laue though ahr ugh the middle of the valley tile water used for irrigation is takei label from the egnous canons of t the he wasatch range on the east side so extensive coextensive 1 is the cultivation that all the water from these thew canons is now exhausted the principal crops cultivated are wheat oats corn potatoes and truck I 1 for the city market markel we have rarely seen more luxuriant harvests than were ripening upon these irrigated fields mr rockwood Bock nock wood is a pioneer in the work of reclaiming alkaline aik alk allne aline soils these lands were formerly thou thought giat glAt to bo be worthless worth iera lesa for all farm crops 11 1 he 1 0 was ridiculed for ills attempt to rec ree reclaim lalib lalin atheni he had learned in his lils boyhood that wood ashes could couii be deprived of their potash by the process of leaching and it occurred to him that alkaline salt might be washed out of the earth and good crops be raised where nothing but sage and greasewood grew he prepared his irrigation di ditches tebes and turned ohp water upon these soils bor for five years before ho he accomplished his purpose the land was cured by water alone and he now secures large largo crops of grass and grain we were shown extensive fields of grass that would turn two to three tons of hay to the acre and gerej were judged edg ed to be worth fifty dollars an acre standing the principal cultivated gr grass gnass is red top we have bor sor much lavid ladof of this kind in our domain that I 1 regard this experiment as a matter Vatter of national importance we have millions of acres of government land worthless for all agricultural purpose can be made h highly y productive by irrigation T they ny improve rather than deteriorate by cultivation and will yield thirty bushels of wheat to the acre these irrigated lands aro are so that an association has been formed to take the water from jordan river near utah lake and distribute ae by a canal upon the west side of is ninety s square aaro miles can be made productivity productive Ty by this stream the fish association h havo have avo bought 22 acres of land for their operations eions there is a cold spring with a discharge of about gallons per minute which furnishes water for the tho ponds the trout are of thee tho black speckled variety found in the streams upon both sides of the mountains and their habits as learned at thi thia establishment s show low them to bon bo a distinct variety ahil while our spawn in november andin and in the wild brooks are generally through in a month these do not nut com Vom commence mence spawning until the last of bf april while aurs oura ouma require from 40 to 70 days to hatch batch these hatch in 14 days the eggs are aro also aiso smaller the stock trout about in number were taken from weber river about two years ago and will weigh from one to three pounds wo we saw largo large trout iu in the market in the city brought from utah lake which we judge to be tile the same variety found in the creeks As tested at at the table we do not think them at all equal to the in flavor the common price is 20 1 10 cents a pound at ht retail the other common varieties va neues dedes of fish are the mullet chub and sucker in bear lake in the north northern ern part of this valley there is n u r red fleshed lake trout which is said to be very fine mr ackwood hatched about eggs his first season and the present spring I 1 he ile had secured some soma eggs of the from the east and about of them had bad hatched hatched and were doing well he has lost very few of his parent fish and be has the prospect of a large supply of spawn next spring he had received from prof baird about 6 shad fry from the east which were kere here planted in jordan ilver liver in july the attempt to raise shad tin sin in this stream which flows into balt bait kahei but b has m no communication with the sea bea Is an experiment of 0 great interest to all fish ash culturists they will have access to salt water in the lake lahe but tile brine is so strong that hitherto no fish has been found in its waters the mouth of the jordanis jordan is a large bay of brackish water which is is said to abound in fish will the shad find here its ita favorite food and d deposit C its spawn in the tile upper waters of the jordan no one is well enough acquainted with the habits of the tele fish to tell the result the experiment which prof baird bird proposes to try in this lake with oysters has hardly go so fair a chance tor for lor success the thu waters are said to bo be one third salt and that is a much jarger larger proportion than sea water in the afternoon we were the guests of the deseret agricultural and manufacturing society of which hon W V woodruff is tho the president and madean made an excursion over the utah southern railroad to little cottonwood canon wo we went as far as sandy on tho the broad gauge aud and then took a narrow gauge up into the mountains took us through h one of the best cultivated districts in the territory The plain was all irrigated and was a constant succession of wheat corn and potatoe fields and ind broad meado meadows ws just mown or heavily burdened with grass the labor of preparing these irrigation di ditches bya byn people struggling with poverty has been immense but these golden harvests li ii pening in the summer sun bear cheerful testimony to the wisdom of these labors bellave we llave have not ie seen been an in all our 0 through the best agricultural regions of our country a more gorgeous sight than this valley of the jordan the narrow gauge road was built for the benefit ot of a silver mine up the canon and large quantities of ore are brought down the I 1 load cad for smelting smelling sm elting eiting this mine called the flag st staff stamm yields about tons of a galena ore with silver in it the granite stratum from which this ore is taken crosses the canon nearly at right angles and immense boulders of this light ight colored stone have been rolled into the valley by the action of frost or other agencies it is in this valley that they have such heavy falls of snow as to bury the miners cabins and prevent all ail egress egress sometimes for weeks in hi the winter it is from this point that the mor mons ha have v 0 ta taken 1 en the 6 stone ton e for th the foundation of their temple which they have been at work upon for the last sixteen years and which is I 1 now tow only just even with the surface formerly this stone was carted by ox teams a distance of twenty miles or more to the city now the immense Inamell so blocks are arc t transported M us ported by rail rall X the scenery in the little cotton canon very appreciated precia clat elat ted edby by and this iza isa is an n important drawback to free locomotion co in this charming valley some scores have been killed the tile present season Beason one with 18 rattles and there are plenty more of th the e same sort left after our return from the excursion we wei were honored with a public reception at the city olty hall where we had the pleasure of meeting socially the mormon leaders with isome bome of their wives and daughters at the close of the entertainment some four hundred of the children with their sabbath school iea ica teachers chers came into the hall and sang a few ot their hymns addresses were made by several of our party and other gentlemen who were present we learned at this interview many interesting facts in regard C to the religious and social condition of the people and the business enterprises of the city W M cin C in country den gen iteman ileman |