Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/75

Rh upon the books of which for the year are borne the names of 1,949 patients.

This hospital subserves an urgent need of this community, and the continuance of provision for it is commended to the attention of Congress.

The expense of the support and medical treatment of each patient in this hospital is about fifty cents a day.

TERRITORIES.

UTAH.

The governor of Utah reports a falling off in the number of agricultural claims initiated in the Territory as compared with the preceding year.

The number of mineral applications has largely increased, more than doubling that of any previous year, and the number of mineral entries exceeds that of the preceding year by about 24 per cent.

The number of cattle is about 200,000, while there have been driven from the Territory during the year not less than 50,000, at an average price of $15.50 per head. The number of sheep is fully 500,000, with a yield of about 2,000,000 pounds of wool, disposed of at about 20 cents per pound. To prevent a decrease in the business of stock raising, the governor favors legislation which will allow stock-raisers to obtain rights other than those given by common consent and by existiug law.

Notwithstanding the drought during the summer of 1879, the yield of the cereals proved to be an average one.

The crops of 1880 have, however, been somewhat injured by the dearth of water during the summer of 1879, followed by a severe and prolonged winter. Dry farming has greatly increased by reason of the rapidly increasing population and the cost and difficulty in constructing irrigating canals.

While this is true, the area reached by irrigating canals is yearly being increased, and much land hitherto untitled is by means of irrigation being brought under cultivation and dotted with farm-houses. The population of the Territory is 145,000, showing an increase of 60 per cent. over that of ten years ago. About one-half of this increase has been drawn by the mines of the Territory. The remaining half has been the result of natural increase by birtb, together with the proselyting work of the missionaries sent out by the Mormon Church.

The governor believes that the mines of Utah will prove among the richest and most productive of any in the West.

Responsible mining men are reducing mining enterprises to a practical business basis, and many good mining districts heretofore inaccessible are now by railroads brought into close connection with the markets, and much of the ore, which on account of its low grade was unprofitable, has now by the superior methods of reducing and extracting become