388)
Until the first fruits were reaped the famine con-
tinued, but the harvest of 1849 was a bountiful one,^
and for six years thereafter none wanted for bread in
the city of Salt Lake.'*
During part of this season many women and chil- dren were without shelter or fuel. To each family as it arrived was given a city lot, until the site was exhausted, as we have seen; but for most a wagon served for dwelling during the coldest months, and later an adobe hut, roofed with unseasoned lumber, and thatched with hay or frozen mud.^ Before sum- mer all were housed in log or adobe dwellings/ the fort
' It was not injured by crickets. Kane's The Mormons, 67. ' Our prophet predicted that if we would exercise patience under our difficulties during the immediate future, our necessities would be supplied as cheaply as they could be in the city of St Louis; and this proved to be true, for in 1849 we raised fair crops.' Smoot's Mormon Wife, MS., 5-6.
- The peculiar chemical formations in earth and water proved of great prac-
tical value when once understood. ' For two years all the saleratus used was obtained from Saleratus Lake, near Independence Rock; the salt from the lake became an article of value in local use and among their exports. The alkali swept down from the mountains, and composed of a great variety of ingredients, &uch as magnesia, soda, salt, etc., when once subdued, makes the most durable of soils, which needs no enriching.' Richards, in Utah Notes, MS., 8.
^ ' Now as regards my beginning at Salt Lake. Soon after my arrival a city lot was assigned to me for a home and residence, on which I placed my wagon box or wagon bed, which contained our provisions, bedding, and all our eartlily goods, placed them upon the ground, turned away our stock upon the winter range, and looked about us. I soon disposed of some of my cloth- ing for some adobes, and put the walls up of a small room, which we covered with a tent-cloth, that answered us during the winter, until lumber could be procured next spring.' Richards' Narr., MS., 38; Early Records, MS., 36-8.
^ On Feb. 18th the people began to move out of the fort to their city lots. Id., 47. A number of temporary farm buildings had been completed before this date. Pratfs Autobiography, 406; Millennial Star, x. 370. A correspond- ent of the Neiv York Tribune, writing from Salt Lake City, July 8, 1849, gives an exaggerated account of the place, which has been copied by several writers on Mormonism. ' There were no hotels, because there was no travel; no bar- bers' shops, because every one chose to shave his neighbor; no stores, because they had no goods to sell nor time to traffic; no centre of business, because all were too busy to make a centre. There was abundance of mechanics' shops, of dressmakers, milliners, and tailors, etc. ; but they needed no sign, nor had they time to paint or erect one, for they were crowded with business. I this day attended worship with them in the open air. Some thousands of well-dressed, intelligent-looking people assembled, some on foot, some in car- riages, and on horseback. Many were neatly and even fashionably clad. The beauty and neatness of the ladies reminded me of some of our congre- gations in New York.' The letter is in Macl-ay's The Mormons, 282. It is unnecessary to expose the absurdity of this description, as the reader is well aware that hundreds of California-bound emigrants passed through the valley this year. Harvesting began July 9th, and until that date the Mormons were Hisr.
