Show REMARKS B by NY TE i ori iri me oie sJ lowery id ine 9 8 T Ch lCuy eit cit gen genes cit fit ference P n oct th igl 1 1 elm sir ta M a i D BY 4 0 D J WATT yat 1 by the request and permission of my brethren I 1 have thi the pleasure of rising up in the midst of the saints to say a few lew words to you this morning I 1 feel teel very thankful to the lord our god that I 1 still have a name and a pince place among his hie peo people lile that I 1 lam iam am permitted to meet with them in general conference to speak of the goodness of our father in heaven and to join in worship with the general assembly of the church of god we are favored fadore truly with fine weather this is 18 not only a I 1 great blessing to us but it is a great blessing to eur friends and brethren who are journeying ne ying on the plains us in our 10 localities call cail ties here first and foremost brethren and sisters te rs I 1 will say gay that on thursday evening I 1 arrived in this city from the south from my field of labor As I 1 bame near the borders of the city I 1 dame came in contact with a very disagreeable smell arising from fromi the decomposition of some animal that had been hauled out but on the tha outside to toce toTe move remove the nuisance nt from the city when I 1 passed A a certain line I 1 entered the city and beheld shade trees and fruit trees laden ith ath with fruit and experienced with delight the agreeable odor from the ripening fruit the contrast was as agreeable as it was great it immediately occurred to my mind that our brethren who are crossing the plains might come in contact with dead bodies that had been removed from among the saints I 1 mean dead as to the spiritual life of god in them for they must of necessity come in contact with these ere they could reach the city of the saints I 1 believe that the e evil ehl 01 things that could be said of the saints are said around the borders and those that are coming here to find a home have these things to encounter that are quite disagreeable and it requires not a 1 little p perseverance and faith to force their way through and to arrive arrive here untarnished by the evil that meets them on the way but when they can came come with the spirit of the lord with the spirit of the saints in iii them they forget all those disagreeable thin thins things s on the ole borders and ano their minds are charged with a heavenly influence nit fit tenee tence when they find themselves among the saints here in peace and aud in truth five year years sago ago the loth of last june I 1 left this city to bestow my labors in another part of the heritage of our god lii iii in the county generally known as that of sanpete gan San pete at the time I 1 went there there were six efficient settlements the largest of which chih h would not exceed exceed or families according to the ability which the lord has given me in connection with my brethren who have been laboring more or less with me the industry of bf the saints and the blessings of the lord I 1 the settlements settlements have now increased to fifteen in number they advanced southward until it was deemed expedient and necessary in the legislature of last winter to organize two new counties namely the sevier bevier county and plute county the land in these counties that is susceptible of cultivation is mostly occupied with settlements which in several places in these new counties are quite arp p we vye have had some difficulties to encounter I 1 and all those who are acquainted with the establishment of new settlements tle ments in new localities are not ignorant that there is always more or less difficulty to contend with especially when they are so remote from what may be vernied head headquarters or from the sources of aid ana and succor we have enjoyed generally very good health we have had some little sickness among children and several have died there is a good deal of ambition among our people to cultivate a great quantity of ground the result of which 1 is that we cultivate our lands poorly in comparison to what we would if we were contented with a smaller area and would connine confine our labors to it we have found some difficulty with regard to water and complaints have been made about a scarcity of water in many places when indeed I 1 suppose the lord has apportioned the water to the amount of land he intended should be cultivated I 1 do not think that these things are passed over unnoticed by him without some id jund lund i nd of arrangement or calculation he understands perfectly well what the elements are capable of producing and how many of his people may be established here or there with profit and with advantage I 1 have labored most industriously since I 1 have acquired a little experience myself eaf to induce my brethren to direct kheir ener energies ie i s i upon smaller miler tracts of jand land for have hav n noticed where men w would ouid aftem attempt t to raise a clop crop off forty acres of lang laner that they could not get their crops in in season and alid frequently the frost came early and destroyed a great portion of them this is bestowing our labor for that which does not profit now would it better to td confine bonfine our energies to a small tract of land put in our crops in due season have hav e ample time to do it do it well and then it would only require one half or one third the amount of water to mature them and they would mature in advance of of the frost I 1 do nb ab know how it is in other sections of the country but I 1 presume it is more or less with them like the circumstances I 1 will relate I 1 have known men single handed attempt to raise twenty five and thirty acres of grain when it is more than any one ong man can W well weli when 11 do the tho result is they nind find themselves troubled to gel get get the water they run from break of day until dark at night awing wearing themselves out and with all they ean can an do they c cannot annot bestow that attention upon their fields which they need and they only get from eighteen to twenty bushels of wheat to the acre when men have confined themselves to ten acres of land having plowed it well the season before all the foul weeds killed out and the soil left elean clean the seed seea see bee d sown at an early day in the spring and put in in iii good order I 1 have known suell such fields to yield from forty to sixty bushels of good plump wheat to the acre besides when fields are so cultivated less water is used the necessary labor can be performed without being hurried and a plentiful harvest and golden sheaves re ward the toil of the laborer this season in all probability our crops will fall short of other years some borne thirty thousand bushels of wheat by reason of the early frosts I 1 re gret this loss I 1 am lia iia happy to say that there is plenty of goote good w wheat cheat in the thoi granary or in the egypt of utah and I 1 think thinh the loss this year through early frosts will aid very much in hl enforcing the principles which I 1 have endeavored to advance namely I 1 to confine our labors to callei smaller tracts tracts of land and put in our crops in pa good time that while they are rowing luxuriantly and yield iny ing bountifully filling our bins with go goyden den grain we are not wom worn out with toil before the days allotted to us to live are expired but we still have bave our strength time to build comfortable houses housa for our families to live in barns and sheds and to prepare shelter shel shei r for durstock our stock stocky I 1 find the longer we live in these vai val valleys that the ihla range is becoming more and more desti destitute of grass the grass is not only eaten up by the great amount of stock that feed upon it but they tramp it out by the very roots and where grass once grew luxuriantly there is now nothing but the desert weed and hardly a spear of grass is to be seen between here and the mouth of emigration kanyon when our brethren the pioneers first landed here in 47 there was an abundance of grass over ovon all those benches they were covered with it like a meadow there is now nothing but the desert weed the sage the rabbit brush and si sueh such like plants that make very poor feed for stock being cut short of or our range in the way we have been and accumulating stock in the we are we have nothing to feed them with in the winter and t ey perish the there re is is no profit in t this thib is neither ie ih it pleasing in the sight sigh of god our heavenly father that we should continue a course of life like unto this hence in my labors I 1 have exerted an influence as far as I 1 have been able to cultivate less land ingrain in grain and secure to ourselves meadows that we might have our hay in the time and in the season thereof shades for our stock barns and stables for our horses and good houses for our families where they may be made comfortable and happy and that we may I 1 not be everlasting slaves running M as it were after an g nus cu a or jaek jack aek ack in the lantern fa following lloil ng a f false faise a I 1 s e ilg light but that we may confine ourselves to a proper and profitable course of life I 1 do say that a mans life consi not in the abundance of the things that he possesses nor upon the vast amount he extends his jurisdiction over but it consists in a little well cared for and everything in order when we confine ourselves and our labors to small tracts of efland land we shall then find time to do everything that is necessary to be done but if we branch out so largely in plowing paving sowing and reaping we wo have ave no time to make necessary improvements around our homes and in our cities in I 1 fact we have so much to do that we can do nothing at all now I 1 speak of these things my brethren not because that they aleithe most edifying to you but I 1 speak of them atheni because I 1 consider that a temporal tempo ial lal salvation is as important as a spiritual one it is Is salvation salvat loh in every e bery very respect that we are laboring to obtain not only to make ourselves comfortable and happy qa sq far as the physical energies of the body are concerned but also that the mind should not constantly be on the strain day and night there should be a little time for relaxation and rest to both body and mind mina that while our dur bodies are resting the mind may be fresh to plan and arrange for our personal comfort and how to make everything snug and tidy around us how much more agreeable is life when everything is in order and good regulation is maintained in and around our bur homes and cities this is what I 1 have endeavored in my weak way to instill into the minds of the saints in some instances I 1 have chave been successful and where men have adopted the course I 1 haye have suggested they have invariably borne te testimony stimon in in its favor I 1 would rather have ha half f a dozed cows in the winter and have them well taken care of than to have twenty and have fourteen of them de die for want of feed and proper attention which would leave me only six I 1 would rather only have the six to begin with then I 1 would not have the mortification of seeing so many intine suffer and die in the present condition of the ranges we cannot indulge in the hope of raising such large herds of stoc stock as we have done heretofore but we have got to keep about what will serve us and take care of them well theil thell we can enjoy ourselves and we are not the authors of misery to any part of creation we are trying to get into this way it is a slow operation and it seems seeing that mens inordinate desire for wealth and extensive possessions is hard to overcome they hate to be limited thoi they thoy think their fields are not large enouf enough for their strength but it is a good thing to have a little strength on hand all tho th time and not let out the very last link linka because there be an un emergency that would really require it if we drive a pair of horses all the time at their utmost speed they are soon boon worn wom out and if you want to make a trip very speedily you cannot do it your animals are rundown you have not husbanded hus banded their strength and they are not capable of performing the journey dou you you wish whereas W if they are properly y driven judiciously fed and their strength properly husbanded husbanded hus banded banded when you want to make a sudden dash you have llave ahe the power to do it we are not unlike in this respect to other portions of the animal creation perhaps I 1 have bave said enough upon this subject we have had our difficulties to encounter in the south it has not all been sunshine and fair weather with us but we have got along as well as we could perhaps that is saying too much it is saying sa ig a good deal I 1 do not know that I 1 tai gai dare e say it I 1 look back frequently upon my past life ilfe and find many places that I 1 think I 1 could have bette bettered redi redl but were I 1 to live my life over again I 1 do not know that I 1 could do any differently I 1 will however let the tha thelast past take tako care of itself and for the future seek to do the will of god and keep myself in subjection to it JL I have no objections to men wisdom and learning from books I 1 whether old or new that is all right and good enough h but I 1 c consider 0 it is is bette better r to have the che spirit 0 f god incur idour hearts that we may know the truth when we hear it an and not only know it when we hear it t but ut be capable by that spirit of brin bringing gi forth things that we never heard I 1 feel that it is our privilege brethren and sisters to have this principle dwelling within us and when I 1 see men laboring through books ancient and modern to find but little that is good I 1 am reminded of those who run over 40 acres of land in a 4 superficial manner and only reap a little when a small smail quantity of rear land and well weli well weil watered and well wen cultivated would be sure to yield a rich harvest a in relation to our position we look back to the days of abraham and we consider him to io be a great man truly lie he was a great mant man he was among the first of great men in this world according to our limited knowledge there were great men before his day but hut we are not so well acquainted with the revelations gi given av en previous to hi his time nor with the men that lived before him as we are with abraham and with the revelations given to him and to prophets subsequent to his time the lord called him away from the worship of idols telling him to separate himself and awo go into a land he would show him he e was s guided by that spirit that always guides aright so he lid come into the and land of canaan the lord told fold him to 0 look I 1 northward and southard southward and eastwards and westward for all the land which thou seest soest to thee will I 1 give it and md to thy seed forever and I 1 will nake make thy seed as the dust of the earth so 30 that if a man can number the dust of the earth then shall thy seed also bi numbered the lord promised to make him a great ruler a prince and the father orffie of the faithful fai fal ahful I 1 want to ask the latter day saints if the field is i not wide enough and if it is not the good will of our father in heaven to make abrahams of every faithful man of god that lives ilyes on the earth at this day ifft if it is not according to the loving kind kindness nes olour of our heavenly father to bless every faithful man of god as he blessed i abraham it seems so to me abraham i had several wives and he hal had children is not the same blessing extended I 1 to us that if it abraham was to be a prince and a ruler and his posterity become numerous may we not iffarth if faithful to our god and to our covenants be as abraham shall there be any end I 1 to our posterity may way they not be as numerous as the stars in the firmament i and as the 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