Nevada Farms. John Muir on the Agricultural Resources of Our Sister State Mountain and Valley Ranches-Virgin Wilds-Irrigation and Artesian Wells. (Special Correspondence of the Bulletin.) Ward, Nevada, September 29, 1878.

i the Asricnltural Resources ot Our stater-State — Moaiualn and Valley RanciHK—Vlrjrin Wilds — Irrigation and Artesian Weils. taPHiitei F THX BULLETIN.] -Ward, Nevada, September 29,187a To the farmer who comes to this thirsty land from beneath rainy skies, Nevada .seems one\u27,] j vast desert, all sagp- and sand, hopelessly irre- \u27 deemable now.-.and forever.\u27 And. tbis under! present conditions is severely frne. For not*, withstanding it has gardens, grain fields* and] hay fields generously productive, these compared with the broad arid stretches of valley and plain, as beheld In general views from the mountain tops, are were specks, lying inconspicuously here andthere7 ln-out-of-trie-w ay\u27 places, often thirty (ft , forty miies apart. In green leafy regions, blessed with copious rains, we learn W measure the -productive capacity of the soijuy its natural vegetation. Bat this rule is alibQst wholly inapplicable here, for, notwithstanding its . savage nakedness, scarce at all veiled- by a sparse growth of sage? and llnoeyris, the ajaji dusty soil of TJavada is\u27 as rich in aU the elements that in other regions are-made-to rise and ripen, into-fwrnanrfood as that of any other State * in the Union. The rroc&SMKT numerous mountain ranges have been thoroughly crushed and ground by 4ha.: glaciers, thrashed and vitalized by the sun, and sifted and outspread in-feseilake basins by powerful torrents that attended the breaking up of the glacial period, as if in every way Nature- had been making haste to prepare the land for the husbandman—Boil, climate, topographical conditions, all that the most exacting could de- mandv-butone thing is. wanting, and-that—is water. The present rainfall would be.wholly inadequate for agriculture even if it were advantageously distributed over the natermaUoir bedseeCUfa* lowUnds; while in fact the greater-, portion is poured out on the heights in suddens! and violent thunder showers called cloudbursts\u27 the waters of which are fruit-\u27 lessly swallowed up in sandy gulches- and deltas a few minutes after their first, appearance. The principal- with deal of snow during winter, but are stored up as fountains for large perennial 8treams.capable of irrigating considerable areas. Most of it is melted before the end of May and absorbed by moraines aDd. gravelly taluses, which send forth small rills that slip quietly down the upper canons through narrow strips of flowery verdure, most of them sinking —J vanishing before they reach the base-\u27 * fountain ranges. Perhaps not one II the whole number flow out into the open r and only a few of -these are large enongh within the feaeehxmgxrnBuence ot californiaT waterstThree of. the Sierra rivers descend from their ley fountains like angels of mercy to bless Nevada. These are the Walker, Carson and Truckee ; and in the valleys: through oh they flow are found by far the most extensive hay and grain, fields the bounds of the. State. Irrigating streams are led off right and left through innumerable channels, and the sleeping grounds starting at once into action, pours forth its wealth without stint. But notwithstanding the many porous fields thus fertilized, a considerable portion of the waters of all these rivers continue to reach their old .deathbeds in the desert, indicating, that in these valleys there still is room for coming farmers. But in Middle and Eastern Nevada every rill that I have seen in a ride of fiUeen. hundred ,- miles, at all available for irrigation, \u27\u27has - been claimed and put to use. It appears, therefore, that under present con-, ditlons the limit of agricultural development inf. this-young- wild State has been already apf proaebed, a result caused not alone by natursfl/ restrictions as to the area capable of development, but by the extraordinary stimulus furnished by the mines to agricultural effort. The gathering of gold and silver, hay and barley, have gone on together. Most of the mid-valley bogs and meadows, and foothill rills capable of irrigating from ten to fifty acres, were claimed more thanSten years ago. A majority of these pioneer settlers are plodding Dutchmen, living content in the back lanes and valleys of Nature, but the high price of all kinds of farm products tempted many of even the keen Yankee prospectors, made wise in California, to bind themselves down to this sure kind of mining. The wildest of wild hay made chiefly of carices and rushes was sold at from two to three hundred dollars per ton on ranches. The same kind of hay is Btill worth Trom fifteen to forty dollars per ton, according to distance from mines, and comparative security from competition ; barley and oats from forty to one hundred dollars a ton, while all sorts of ,.\u27 garden products find\u27 ready sale at - \u27 more -than doable California prices, while -the value—- of ranch labor is only $40 per- month-. With corny T.aratiir8iy log-prices-of labor, rich mine mar- id salubrious climate, the Nevada farmer nking and I e of their | in tenof | pen plain\u27s,. [ State I have yet seen, while the almost savage isolation in which they live seems grateful to them. Even in those eases where the advent of neighbors brings no disputes concerning water rights and range?, they seem to prefer solitude; most of them having been elected from 4be adventurous pinnrrrn_nf California—the Dioneerst pioneers. The passing stranger, however, is always welebmed and supplied with the best af\u27gil his home affords, and around his fireside, while he smokes his pipe, very little encouragement is required to bring: forth-the story of his life—hunting, mining, righting, in the early Indian times, etc. Only tried their best.https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/1059/thumbnail.jp