| Show SAN JUAN NEW HEW MEXICO JACKSON ban juan co new mexico since returning home last august I 1 have bare many times thought of writing HD an article for the benefit of the many anxious readers of the DESERET describing the be many natural orble part of our fair land now new mexico you know goow Is ie the be bun ablie state 12 and for the past three and a ball bait years until last augusts august there haa ban been almost almast perpetual sunshine but the day after my arrival home borne we had a heavy rain storm and fox for two months afterwards atter warda it rained hard bard nearly every week the latter part of the be fall and until january there was no snow at ail aud and the climate was so au pleasant and warm that men worked cut of doors with their heir costs coats off most all day long nearly every day but on the uth of january it began to rain and on the morning of the we had bad about three inches of snow here bore on the laplatte Ija La platta ane frost is about all out of the he ground and we can commence plowing as an soon as it gets dry dolub the ground jo is in excellent bond condition igloo and good crops are certain this year fur for the he past three years crops have been almost a failure here bete on the lower La laplatte platta lou account of we be drout hand consequently this little branch of the burnham ward has been almost vacated but now a goodglass good class of people are moving back here to redeem ledeen this place elder william halts halle of manoos mancos anu bishop li C burnham from fruit land were here last week and held meetings with the people and they assured us no that henceforth our labors would not be la in vain the jackson canal which was built five years ago and which has been ol of but little use uee to the people who built it with a very little repairing will be in excellent condition to furnish water for the reservoir and for all the cultivated land in the community the reservoir is now over twelve feet high and will be raised five feet feel higher this hie mont hand with the superabundance a 0 water wet that rows by until the lot let of july almost every year the reservoir will be filled and hold held in reserve until the latter part of the summer when it will furnish sufficient water for one or two good which will insure a third crop of lucern lubern and the corn crop without the reservoir unloose it to is in ID extreme caesh mall email grains can be matured before the water fails in the creek and the production is something wonderful too there is scarcely an sere acre of land on OB the lower laplatte La platta that aul wul not produce forty bushels of small email grain and the most of it will produce from sixty to 0 o eighty bush bushelon elii pur per acre up to the present there have only been about acres of land cultivated in this bis place but there are from 1600 1500 to 2000 acres of just as aa good food land as aa that now cultivated yet to be cleared off and cultivated which will certainly be dune done in the near future for such land as this will not be left to lay jay idle as aa soon as we can convince people that water li ij a sure thing six months ago land could have been bought on time for about one halt half what it would take now to buy it and aad a water right in the tb canal could have been bought for 75 below cost coat but at present stick ottok in the ditch and reservoir la Is worth anyway 50 cents on the dollar and by next fall I 1 feel certain that land and water will double in value for an aa soon oon as aa the res errair proves to be a we know it will do many will want to buy but few will sell at all at present there are three or four quarter sections elections open for entry which I 1 do wish could be secured ny 07 gme me poor missionaries like myself who have come home broke and desiring to get a place piece of land for an aa inherit since ance now to the chance fur for such fe fellows lloro I 1 know of several who labored with me on the islands island who would I 1 believe feel that they had small email fortunes if they were here with me today I 1 closed the bargain this morning with a brother joseph 8 smith for his claim to this quarter section I 1 am on which has a small house of three rooms on it a stable corral hen ban house bouse and has thirty five acres of rich bottora bottom land cleared off fl ban baa water right in canal with it all of which I 1 got fur with three years to pay it in there are other place not so much improved that I 1 could have got much cheaper and still other places not improved i I 1 could have taken ut u but as an I 1 believe I 1 can live jive ou the place and pay par for it without cramping myself in tb the least I 1 preferred this place already improved good pinion and cedar wod can be got in great abundance within three arid and a half bait miles and coal ean can he be got within eight miles for 1 per ton at the mine balne such an opening as presents itself for poor honest industrious men I 1 never siw saw befort before I 1 our set settlement here bore is four miles mile from the mouth ot of the creek and thirteen miles from fj altland and five miles milea from farmington and a butter better location for a nice settlement I 1 have never seen though I 1 have wandered aronno much over the arid and regions of the wild westy west our climate our soil and our natural advantages are secona to none in all this mountain country but just one thing blog we are in need of 0 and that to is few good faithful industrious families or men like myself wishing to got get a home and family our coulty government so our district judge tolu us ue to is the be bess beat in all new mexico and our schools are much better this year than ever before and we are going to labor hard to make theta them equal to any in the laud the health of the people la in good and prosperity edema tu to stare us in the face go 80 it providence waa wi 1 l smile upon us ns we will raise our heads beads and say dome come to us all ye weary here is a place to stay come join us in our labors and he help I 1 p us here bere to stand and make our homes a heaven beaven the best beat in ail ta the land besides were there 1 alo an other opening for one ortho or two good settlements ee tle tl emente ments bore bere on or near the river about ten miles above here there la Is a mesa about four miles lonn long by one mile wide which to is so BO level that water would run south for more than a bill at a stretch without leveling the lurt at all from one elide bide of the bow bench to the other and lot for lose leas than SM za worth of work a large dindi which covers a lower bench beach of land could be light up and across abe to upper end of over half ol of this ul piece of country and still there is another ditch surveyed above this one oae which could be built for not more than which will olef the whole of said aid mesa even this lon it all the lower ditch above mentioned has hais be bete surveyed clear over into the head of ef the large dry valley north of fruit land where sooner or latter reservoir will be built which will be filled from this thia large ditch during tb toe winter and spring months and this furnish water for thousands of etcar abc of beautiful level rich laud land on ob why wha dont men take advantage of them the golden opportunities As AB baser brigham young told me last joist abla gable Is ia the country and all it dalaw to develop it is ia men with beamis OW and their bread they don dont donit it need moneys oa oney why do men lay jay around waiting jw bt others who have rustled to give them a job fob crying hard limes 11 1 1 it we cant banot have silver and the gold 10 fr looked ul U it if we would we could an our broad bread by the sweat of our bra broick raise cattle borne sheep hoga bogs try OLO etc sod and besides raising what V I 1 wang to out eat we could if we establish factories tanneries canneries tann eries and M mun and thus be ib dependent of the oufa world your brother in the gospel LEWIS B |
