Show utah behind the times in farming raising this data has been assembled for the uintah basin farmer by J P may from government statistics utah is the pioneer state in irrigation for a long time our state was about the only part farmed by the white race with the aid of irrigation and our experience and practice was noted ind and copied in many parts of this country as well as in other countries we may well be proud of the record made by our pioneers however we utah folks are inclined to assume ass urne consciously or otherwise that our state is still the great irrigated state using more water in this manner than any other state still the leader the facts are very much against us as the following figures will show this data is taken from the U S department of agriculture yearbook of 1924 the last for which they give data 1919 gives the following total acreage irrigated in the mountain states and the per cent of the land irrigated in the caun country t ry FArl arizona zona 24 colorado clo idaho 2 13 Oelo nevada more land than she has ever cropped before or since 29 utah more than in 1924 71 wyoming 63 our utah people generally believe even it informed that we are low in amount of land irrigated that the value of the land and the amount of money produced on each each acre makes up for the small acreage the following will disprove this a montana wyoming colorado arizona butah utah idaho utah does not show up extra well on the value of wheat produced per acre ranking third among the eight mountain st states a tes on rye rye utah is the lowest of any except nevada and new Af mexico eXico rye is a good crop ind and a loaf of rye bread once per week would be good tor for many a person who does not know the value of this food continued on page 6 UTAH BEHIND TIM THE TIMES IN FARMING LIVESTOCK RAISING continued from page 1 utah stands low on oil corn in 1924 montana had acres in ill this crop and produced 91 bushels wyoming 16 lares bushels colorado acres bushels new mexico 00 acres bushels arlzo arizona a acres bushels utah acres bushels nevada 1000 acres es bushels idaho 80 00 acres bushels the average yield of 0 corn per acre for he eight states was about 26 bush Is per acre that year and utah just about comes to this average but idaho made 35 per acre utah lands ate a e high in value per ocre for plow land and we are jroud roud of this yet considering our small acreage we should be rather a jumble armble montana has average value of plow land per acre of 21 tor for 1924 wyoming 27 colorado 52 arizona utah 86 idaho 68 again on oil wheat we do not stand very high viz montana population per capita coll consumption sumP 53 bushels exportable exposi table surplus bushel idaho per capita consumption 59 bushel surplus ur plus wyoming 57 bushel surplus colorado population consumption lump tion per capita 65 55 bushel surplus ius bushels new mex alex co 72 had to import bushel arizona 36 imported bushel atah population 56 surplus bushel nevada 77 56 imported califor ita ila people consumption 31 51 had bad to import bushel population in these cases is given by the government as of january 1 the consumption is the ive average rage irom from 1819 9 to 1923 inclusive on this bread question we might inight add the following total population of the nation per the year hook book per capita consumption bushel total requirements average for the four years bove above bushel leaving us an average surplus of bushel this surplus however Is largely supplied by two or states north dakota had a surplus of bushel kansas as it is easily seen that it if north dakota and kansas had a drouth or failure uncle sam I 1 would be short on wheat of the forty eight states in the union thir tyone ty one do not grow enough wheat for their own use utah stands low on oats the acreage tor for the nineteen principal cirps in 1924 in united is 3 4 90 0 0 acres or slightly more than three acres per capita of this total atah U tah had I 1 acres in crops on a one hundred bundled basis utah stood in crop production in 1924 against tor for the entire western and coast states and tor for the for ty eight states utah farm labor Is high the average in october 1924 was per d day a y against for the mo moun rain and western states and 1194 for cor the entire country the country as a whole produces about ono one halt full grown standard ho hog per capita in these mountain states idaho and colorado produce their own pork and have a little to sell utah produces only these figures are tor for 1924 government estimate of hogs grown it is estimated that about hogs are handled by the packing houses anat about are killed on the farms but the pigs that we grow in utah are not up to standard in weight and in amount of tat fat produced produced he nce we import more than the number the tha wo grow would indicate our nl market r value for that year 1 on oil ill ahr farms farma tor for the hogs we had was only about practically atif same as wyoming montana had farm value colorado and arizona about the same as utah idaho had over 3 in this country the farm value of hogs grown per capita is about ta 6 and utah produced only 2 worth remember this Is not the price paid at the butcher shop but tile the price tor for the live hogs utah produced only 2 or one third ot of the 6 per capita which we use we buy possibly worth of pork because we buy at this much increased price ham breakfast bacon lard put up by the packing houses and shi shipped blied in by jobbers jobber and retailed to the customer we do not have exact figures utah imports most of ahe the cheese chees used although we have no definite defini tF figures on it we apparently have butter tor for other states and while I 1 la is comparatively small in quan lit yet it brings us some cash tho country as a whole produces bou abou all it needs but there are years quite often where considerable is imported from other countries and then Copen copenhagen hagerl rules the market on milk cows the following data is interesting Alon montana tana head average value per head 53 wyoming 57 colorado 50 now new mexico 50 arizona 85 utah 72 nevada 83 I 1 idaho 62 california cows average value per head 76 on beet beef cattle we compare as follows Mont montana aria wyoming colorado new mexico arizona utah nevada idaho utah shows show up fairly well on balry cows but is taking a back set on oil the beet beef cattle industry utah beats idaho on sugar we have from sixteen to eighteen factories in operation and produce of in an average about short tone ton of refined sugar it a year giving us a large margin which we export idaho has seven to nine factories in use and produces on an air average about tons utah is the greatest alfalfa seed bbate but we are aie not a any y more the leader on production of alfalfa hay which we were thirty or forty year yean aso a 0 othere was a time when was the only part pait of the conti contineri neni where there this great forage rop r c op amounted to much now we arc beaten by many states as the 1 figures indicate michigan lOEi tons wis WI a cousin minnesota and iowa near ly as much nebraska produces albu and kansas hansas two thirds a much utah montana south da kota and idaho go over the mil lion ton mark utah producing thal year tons and idaho I 1 tons colorado is nearly up to kansas but california beats every state by far with a production of tons we hear a lot about uncle sam exporting so much farm machinery and implements to foreign coun tries in 1920 we used worth of these goods and in 1922 the last figures at hand we dropped down to in 1920 wo we exported to foreign countries worth of I 1 farm arm equipment goods and in 1922 we exported only worth it should be apparent that utah valle proud of her record in irra gation in reclaiming the desert lands is today a small state in population ula uIa tion in wealth in land per capita that is in crops and in the yields per acie ace there Is not one farmei in ten in utah who would believe w without the proof that wyoming has more acres in crops per population than utah yet that state has ga 0 of all the irrigated land in the country and utah 71 wy comings population is and utah atall has people writer thought that utah surely had at least 20 per cent more people than idaho yet the total population of each state Is almost the same there not being possibly people difference one way or the other and it would be an even bet as to which state has the larger jarger population nevertheless idaho has in crops nearly neaily acres 85 it A it irrigated while utah has less thin than half of this acreage and about 30 n of it irrigated it la is evident that utah must wake up pi tile land which we have growing crops may not be producing us ua much more moie than our mines and certainly not as much as livestock and mining nevertheless Never theles the livestock could not do without the agriculture and we could not do without the farm and the livestock As brbgham Bri ghant young said and many times emphasized in the pioneer days it is better to let the mineral remain undeveloped while we build homes and have fertile farms of our own the united states as a whole has three acres per capita in crops while utah Is below this average california Is rapidly growing and cannot produce her own bread she may get the wheat from washington and idaho but the population in all ol of these states Is growing rapidly irrigation even in a state like colorado Is playing the leading role among tire the eight mountain states the irrigated area will not be greatly enlarged excer for or two bi big projects that Is the ulillah basin and the boulder dam in california colorado already has nearly one fifth of all the land irrigated in the united states california nearly one fourth of it while utah has only about one fifteenth of it the purpose of this accumulation ot of data with other facts which the writer has hag arranged is to impress pur own utah people with the fact act that we need more wheat more corn more pork more beet beef and even evell more alfalfa hay bay while we grow enough wheat there Is market tor for more than we produce on corn beef pork and several other products we are short and must pay out our cash produced from altal ta fa seed wool and coal mining etc tor for these foods we should product all our corn and pork two very lin im items which we need bu the land we have in cultivation two acres per capita will not per mit much more of 0 these products the 24 acres for every man w wo 0 mari man and child in our state Is daini its full duty in all sections excel the uintah basin we should be impressed by thi fact that we need more people ii the basin and that our state need more corn more pork and more inor beef three products which the uin tall tah basin can call produce and keep utah money to 10 build up our own state the uintah basin Is the hope ot of our state the biggest thing in the state yet undeveloped it la is the particular business ot of every land owner in our two counties to inform our fellow citizens elsewhere in the state that our state must help us it is the business of our leading business men and our political leaders to inform our state administration that we must have help this demand is not altogether selfish the state of utah needs these additional products and our state Is each year sending an excess of surplus population to other states we must have good roads independently of a railroad so that the new people who come in to look at our vast land areas will not feel so keenly the isolation we are past the first stage of the pioneering of this great inland country and we must now get down to business Is it not about time that wo we should take this view U B D farmer |