CHAPTER XI.
IN THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
1848.
Food and Raiment—Houses—Home Manufactures—The Fort—Wild Beasts—Cannon from Sutter's Fort—Indian Children for Sale—Measles—Population—Mills and Farming Machinery—The Plague of Crickets—They are Destroyed by Gulls—Scarcity of Provisions—The Harvest Feast—Immigration—Five Thousand Saints Gathered in the Valley—Fencing and Farming—Distribution of Lots—Organization of County Government—Association for the Extermination of Wild Beasts.
At the opening of January 1848, the saints were housed, clad, and fed in moderate comfort, and general content prevailed.[1] The season was exceptionally mild; there were occasional light falls of snow, but not enough to interfere with ploughing and sowing,[2] and a large tract of land was partially enclosed and planted with wheat and vegetables.
So many people were now in the valley that notwithstanding the abundant crops food at length became scarce. Families weighed out their flour and allowed themselves so much a day. The wheat was ground at a mill on City Creek, but as there was no bolting-cloth, the shorts and bran could not be separated. The beef was very poor,[3] as most of the cattle
- ↑ Parley P. Pratt says: 'Here life was as sweet as the holidays, as merry as in the Christian palaces and mansions of those who had driven us to the mountains.'
- ↑ 'It was a strange sight to see sometimes furrows on one side and snow on the other. In Feb. men worked out of doors in their shirt sleeves. ' Horne's Migrations, MS., 24.
- ↑ 'It was so tough that Brother Taylor suggested we must grease the saw to make it work.' Home's Migrations, MS., 26.
