Show the old settler sly my dear san Ju anners regardless of where I 1 live or the lu siness in which I 1 engage the important fact is still that my philosophy of life my ideals my hopes and my plans have been forni forming ing for more than fifty years in san juan and I 1 am not by any means divorced from it because of being six or eight hours removed ap in point of lo 10 location aaion the possibilities the future and the essential destiny of san juan are immovable figures in my chamber of thought I 1 shall love it still an and id be solicitous for its welfare as for a deaf friend or a brother with whom I 1 had lived even eventful tf ul years the di discoverer coverer of a country is not necessarily the man who fights his way over mountains and oceans ocean s and claims glory for seeing it first t but it is the man or men who discover its resources and demonstrate the ways in which the creator has supplied it as a fit place for his children to live discovery does not consist in beating everyone else to the place or thing faraway far away but in being able to discern the real import and worth of that which the thoughtless multitude is passing over aver as worthless and commonplace our parents took pains to raise and admire what they called love apples but it took a discoverer to show that the love apples were not poison as people had believed but a very useful article of food to be called tomatoes our parents came into a country parched with drouth and hitherto considered worthless but when resourceful farmers adopted irrigation continued on page 13 the old settler Conti continued from first page they put it on the map as a rich country filling it with green fields and tree sheltered cit es our parents thought the area beyond the ditch was worthless but discerning minds demonstrated some of the possibilities of arid farming and the dry bench became a field af aL waving grain I 1 adhere shere are areas where brush a i weeds grow big and rank even in times of drouth and we are agreeing with the pessimist that it is just one of natures contradictions tra to make the ground fertile to worthless forms of vegetation where nothing good would grow it is at this point on the frontier of our understanding that some thoughtful patient plodder is going to discover a big new fact and put san juan on the map as a rich country for years I 1 have watched alfalfa grow and thrive where it had to fight its way against rocks and weeds and drouth dreuth with no water but the rain and no helpful hand to dig around its roots or hoe away its tough rivals this was r interesting with promise that av t only kept account of these volunteer patches year after year but I 1 procured the most persistent strains of drouth resistant alfalfa planted them in rows and watched them grow with a little cultivation and no water but the rain it thrilled me I 1 saw in it the big destiny of san juan county with just half a chance it will not fail to make one good cutting of hay once a year the county has thousands of acres that could be raising this kind of hay there has never been a year too dry for it nor a year too dry for corn with hay and silage and pigs and cows a dairy zone would grow up around the base of blue mountain and its butter and cheese and milk and pork would become a source on which people far and near would learn to depend the prosperity of dairy sections is steady and dependable I 1 cannot go into detail here about the way to get it started how near to plant the rows to make the crop stand up f for or the mower how to use the spring tooth and other essentials what I 1 want you to think about is that it has been growing there all these years even in 1934 with only half the rain of the drnest year ever known in our time before or since this persistent alfalfa was demonstrating there in the brush and rocks before us that it take off its hat to russian thistle wild morning glory nor anything else it marched right on staging an exhibit intended most of all to show an unthinking populace what the creator had intended it for yours for the good of san juan ALBERT R LYMAN one tiling thing more qa j c n the people from san juan sawn n salt lake they frequently phone me asking if I 1 know of a way they can get home or if I 1 know of passengers they can take home this suggests a way in which I 1 can be of service to the people there I 1 cant run an open house and detain my in a hostile manner as I 1 would liki like to do I 1 have neither the room nor the help nor the wherewith and very little time to talk but I 1 can run a clearing house for people wanting a way or passengers to or from san juan if they will just call me at wasatch W I 1 can save them money and time without any cost to them and little trouble to mei me ARL |