Note 165 — Chapter VI · Descriptive Geography, Ethnology, and Statistics of Utah Territory.

I annex a description of Washington County, which lately appeared in the “Deserét News:”

“Yesterday afternoon I met in the library of the University the Hon. Wm. Crosby, the representative from Washington County to our Legislature, who furnishes me with some items of information respecting the county he represents worthy a passing notice, especially as there is so little known of that county. The inhabitants are estimated at about 1500 persons, chiefly engaged in farming and grazing. The county of Washington in area is as large as the State of Connecticut, generally of a barren, desert character, broken and mountainous. On the borders of the Rio Virgen and the Santa Clara there are narrow strips of land exceedingly fertile, on which every thing grows with great richness, and at a cost of very little labor. During the present year only 50,000 pounds of cotton have been raised, but, properly cultivated and attended to, the inhabitants there could raise all the cotton ever required by the inhabitants of this Territory. At present its cultivation is almost neglected for the want of proper facilities for its manufacture. The entrance also of the army in 1857, followed by immense trains of goods—which, by-the-by, some of the merchants never paid a cent for, and it is very doubtful if they ever will—was also a crushing competition to the people of Washington County.

“Every kind of fruit that has been tried there grows with great luxuriance. The apple, pear, plum, apricot, peach, and fig trees do exceedingly well. The English walnut-tree grew this year nine feet, and the Catawba grape grew nineteen feet and a half before the 6th of September. The bunches of those grapes, many of them, measured nineteen inches in length. At Tocqueville, one of the small towns in that county, one man raised this year two water-melons from one vine that weighed, the one sixty, and the other fifty pounds.

“At the Agricultural Exhibition, held there last September, the fine grapes which I have mentioned were on exhibition. At the same time there was exhibited a stalk of cotton containing three hundred and seven forms; a radish measuring eighteen inches in circumference; a sunflower head thirty-six inches; and a monster castor-bean stalk; a sweet potato-vine five feet and a half long; and one Isabella grape-vine twenty-five feet long. One man had in his garden trees which in six months grew as follows:

ft. in.

Washington Plum 8 6

Apple-trees 6 6

Apricots 7 0

Figs 7 0

Almond 7 2

Peach 8 6

Pears 6 0

“In climate, Washington embraces all the varieties from frigid to torrid, from regions of perpetual frost to an eternal spring. Every kind of out-door work, plowing, ditching, building, etc., can be pursued throughout winter in some parts of the county, while in others there are killing frosts throughout the whole year.

“I had almost forgotten to mention that the soil is excellent for the grape, and during the present year very fine tobacco has been grown there, as well as madder and indigo. The sorghum raised there has a magnificent flavor, and without the ‘patent fixings,’ with very little labor, and that of the simplest character, good sugar is made from it. At the late exhibition the sorghum took the two highest prizes. I believe the honorable member from Washington has brought with him a few gallons of this very fine molasses as a cadeau to the Prophet. To readers who have every luxury in abundance and at very moderate figures, these items may have little interest, but to those who watch the progress of the people here, and the reclaiming of the desert, this information has great significance. In a few years every thing that the people require will be raised from their own soil, and manufactured by their own hands.

“Mr. Crosby, from whom I elicited these facts, was born in Indiana, but ‘brought up’ in the Southern States. Mormonism got hold of him in 1843, in the State of Mississippi. Following the fortunes of Brigham, he brought some nine or ten slaves, ‘very select niggers.’ In 1851 he went over to San Bernardino, and was bishop over there. The state soon liberated the ebony folks, and Mr. Crosby, of course, lost his $9000 or $10,000 by the operation.

“The Superintendent of the Church Public Works and a few others went out exploring for coal about the Weber some time in August last, and found a splendid bed of mineral. It promises to be the greatest blessing that has yet fallen to the lot of the Saints. Of course I do not look at things with ‘an eye of faith;’ that is their business. But among people paying $10 per cord for wood, scarce at that, and sure to be scarcer, the discovery of coal is an important matter. The present coal-bed is about fifty miles distant; but, nevertheless, paying $3 per ton at the mouth of the pit, at which it is now sold, it can be brought into the city and sold for $20. Last year it was sold here to blacksmiths for $40. The Pacific Railroad folks should have an eye on this. The apprehension that the absence of coal and wood in the Territory would be a serious obstacle need not now exist. Though the wood is scarce and high priced as an article of daily household consumption, railroad companies can get all the lumber they require for money, though they may have to haul it far and pay a good price for it. I believe that the whole country is full of coal, and what is not coal is gold and silver; but I earnestly hope that the day is far distant before the Mormons or any body else discover the precious metals. The coal discovery, however, is very important. The bishops of the city have been instructed to urge upon their flocks the hauling of it, and it is hoped that by constant travel the snow will be kept down and the roads clear all the winter. A Scotch miner, who had just returned from the coal-bed, told me the other day that it far exceeded any thing that he had ever seen in his own country, or in the States, both in quality and abundance.”