Show the old settler written from salt lake city without taking time again to tell the interest and purpose behind these letters let jet me begin with other things that I 1 have in mind to say it shoula go without saying that to succeed in a country unless your business bears no relationship at all to its resources and capacities one of the first essentials is to know what these peculiar resources and capacities are the native plants and other ex s t I 1 va values I 1 u es waiting in a new 0 o ty ar are e of necessity ina raw ana alrude trude state and must be developed and improved before they can be depended upon for human sustenance when men look around in the new country and fail to see the things made native to the long settled region from which they came they regard it as a barren and unprofitable region and leaving it they report it unfavorably wherever they go this is no inference that a new country should not be expected at once to accommodate to a wide variety of plant and animal life it had not known before but it is saying that the new region should be allowed two special considerations first that it is still a good country though it accommodates perfectly to only a limited number of new forms refusing to be congenial with some of the foreign types that are offered second that its own native forms with which unfailing nature has provided it should be carefully developed before any just verdict is rendered for or against it it is already shown that alfalfa wheat and other grains are about as much at home in san juan as if they had originated right there peaches apples and a long list of fruits and vegetables have been found to grow there as if in their native element this much and more has been so clearly demonstrated that to have f failed ailed to see it is rather a reflection on the power to see yet there are things native to san juan which have not been generally recognized one of these is grapes I 1 have failed to find them growing wild in the gulches yet I 1 have found nothing th ca aws in the coun country try with and more persistence than they I 1 set out a string of grapevines expecting to water them but after i getting them started I 1 failed to provide them any more water and I 1 failed too from necessity to give them any care they had to fight the their r way with cheat grass and russian thistle and yet the they y not only lived but there was never neve r a year too dry for them to bring forth a crop they spread out over the ground like melon vines and bore grapes every year for at least eight years I 1 set out a white grape called the thompson seedless and no ditch was ever made to its roots yet it bore great golden clusters a foot long I 1 have never eaten a seo seless sell ass ss grape that was more delis del alai yet my conscience hurt rne me whenever n ever I 1 feasted on its fruit continued on page 13 the old settler continued fron from first page because I 1 had done nothing to be the rightful consumer this vine was on a north hillside and I 1 took from it a cutting and planted it on a south slope even more dry I 1 carried water to it till it began to root and after that I 1 let it fight its own way with no more favors than I 1 had showed to the thistles whistles es and other weeds und it it proved no less fruit considered fi athan than the parent vine and as dered it and the other vines I 1 wished to the dickens I 1 had the time to plant a vineyard for I 1 had no doubt that with just a little reasonable care it would be a phenomenal success I 1 have no doubt that grapes could be raised in huge quantity with little trouble in san juan currants and grow wild on the dry hills and among the rocks of course they are crude but they could be improved and grafted to advantage the same is true of native cherries and the native apple bushes on which improved varieties could be grafted the native is prized for its delicious jelly and the native raspberry and other ars ll 11 fruit has a real value beahe iddie native potato grows in our canyons and with the right kind of attention could be made to do even better bette r than the popular varieties from the outside corn too is native the cobs are there from the centuries of long ago yet this is but a hurried hint of what the country offers in the way of native plants and natural resources A disciple of luther burbank could do in san juan the thing for which his name would be spoken in love by future generations erat ions some patient woman thoughtful boy or painstaking farmer may yet make discoveries that will bring the country into its intended importance yours for the good of san juan ALBERT R LYMAN |