History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

724 AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.
growing crops are occasionally nipped by trost when
those on the bench-lands escape altogether. 12
The havoc wrought, as we have seen, by crickets
and grasshoppers among the growing crops of the
first settlers, and again in 18 55-6, 13 was repeated at
brief intervals in later years. Seldom was a harvest
gathered in Utah that was not more or less injured
by this scourge. 14
Of the nature of the soil, slight mention has already
been made. 15 The early settlers discoursed in glowing
terms of its fertility, though passing emigrants spoke
of it as a "mean land," hard, dry, and fit only for the
plodding, thrifty, sober Mormon. The main drawback
was the alkaline matter, which was so abundant
in spots as to form a white efflorescence on the surface,
and wherever this efflorescence appeared, vegetation
died. Otherwise its composition was favorable to
fertility, being formed principally of the disintegrated
feldspathic rocks of the mountain ranges, mingled with
the debris and decomposed limestone of the valleys. 16
At the annual fairs held by the Deseret Agricultural
and Manufacturing Society, discontinued after
1881 on account of inability to secure permanent
grounds and buildings, prizes were awarded for nearly
all the varieties of grain, fruits, and vegetables that
12 Says Burton: 'The spring vegetation is about a fortnight later on the
banks of Jordan than above them;' and he also asserts that the presence of
saleratus or alkaline salts is another cause of cold. City of the Saints, 345.
13 See pp. 279-81, 498 (note 36), this vol.
u In 1859 great injury was done to the crops in Juab co. and elsewhere.
Deseret News, June 29, 1859; and in Carson Valley. Sac. Union, June 23, 1859.
For damage by crickets and grasshoppers in other years, see Deseret News,
May 2, 1SG0; S. F. Gall, July 22, 1864; Deseret News, Aug. 7, 14, Sept. 4, 1867,
May 13, 1868; S. F. Bull., May 21, June 30, 1S68; Huntsville, Descript. of,
MS., 6; Utah Sketches, MS., 27; S. F. Times, Aug. 10, 1869; S. F. Call,
Aug. 18, 1869; Deseret News, June 29, 1870, May 17, 1871; S. F. Bull, Oct.
4, 1872. In the Second Bept Entomol. Comm., 45th Cong. 2d Sess., there is
also a report on their ravages, with suggestions as to their extermination.
15 See" p. 322, this vol.
16 For further mention of the soil of Utah, see U. S. Agr. Bept, 1869, p.
617, 1S70, 557 et seq., H. Ex. Doc, 42d Cong. 2d Sess., 325; Mess, and
Doc, 1868-9 (abridg.), 831; U. S. Land-Off. Bept, 1869, 170-1; King's Geol.
Survey, v., p. xlviii.; Ludlow's Heart of the Continent, 202-3; Marshall's
Through Amer., 237; S. L. Wkly Tribune, Feb. 14, 1SS0; Musser'a Fruits of
Mormonism, 27.