History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

300 IN THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
expected to find a ready market on reaching their
destination. But while sojourning in the valley, news
arrived that vessels laden with similar merchandise
had arrived in San Francisco, or were far on their
way, and that already the market was greatly overstocked.
36 The emigrants were therefore glad to
exchange their costly outfits and their trading goods
for whatever they could get in exchange, a single
horse or a mule, with a small stock of provisions, being
sometimes accepted as an equivalent for property
that had cost the owner thousands of dollars. The
cattle thus obtained by the settlers, in barter, after
being fattened on the nutritious grasses of the valley,
were driven to California, where a sure and profitable
market was found.
As a result of the California-bound migration, there
followed an enormous advance in the price of provi-
sions, flour selling before the harvest of 1850 at one dol-
lar per pound, and after harvest at twenty-five dollars
per cental. 37 Throughout the autumn of this year the
grist-mills were run to their utmost capacity, grinding
wheat for the passing emigrants, who at any cost
must procure sufficient to carry them to the gold
mines. Some other articles of food were for a time
equally scarce, sugar selling at the rate of three pounds
for two dollars; 33 though beef was plentiful, and
could be had for ten cents per pound. 39
It is probable,
36 ' Thousands of emigrants. . .have passed through Salt Lake City this season,
exchanging domestic clothing, wagons, etc., for horses and mules.' Hist.
B. Young, MS., 1849, 143.
87 Utah Early Records, MS., 112; Contributor, ii. 240. See also Frontier
Guardian, Sept. 18, 1850, where is a copy of an address delivered by Brigham
Young at the bowery, S. L. City. 'I say unto you, farmers, keep your wheat,
for I foresee if you are not careful starvation will be on our heels. ' It was
not intended, however, that food should be withheld from the destitute; in
'
another address from Brigham, published in the same paper, we read: I say
to you, latter-day saints, let no man go hungry from your doors; divide with
them and trust in God for more.' 'Emigrants, don't let your spirits be worn
down; and shame be to the door where a man has to go hungry away.'
Sa On Nov. 21, 1849, Mr Vasquez opened a store in Salt Lake City, and
met with ready sale for his sugar at this rate. Utah Early Records, MS., 100.
s9 Fuel and building material were costly, firewood being worth, in 1S50,
ten dollars per cord, adobe bricks a dollar a hundred, and lumber five dollars
the hundred feet. Two years later, 'states goods' had also become scarce
throughout the territory, linen selling for 20 to 30 cents per yard, flannel for