--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 12 published: 1928-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "*Improvement Era* 31, no. 12 (October 1928). Salt Lake City: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, October 1928." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera31012unse curator_note: Internet Archive issue scan; advertising and unpaginated plates omitted. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1928-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera31012unse publication_year: 1928 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1928, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Improvement Era, October 1928 Improvement Era Vol. XXXI OCTOBER, 1928 No. 12 Irrigation By Levi Edgar Young, of the First Council of Seventy "O Maker of the material world, thou holy one! Who is it that rejoices the earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is he who sows most corn, grass, and fruit: Who waters ground that is dry, or drains ground that is wet.' "He Who Sows Corn, Sows Righteousness" The Zend-Avesta Behold! Our Mother Earth is lying here, Behold! She giveth of her fruitfulness. Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here! Behold on Mother Earth the growing fields! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here. Behold on Mother Earth the spreading trees! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Give thanksi to Mother Earth who lieth here! Behold on Mother Earth the running streams! Behold the promise of her fruitfulness! Truly, her power gives she us. Our thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here! — From a Pawnee Song of the Earth. A treasured relic in the Dcseret Museum at Salt Lake City bears this inscription: THIS PLOUGH WAS USED BY ELDER WILLIAM CARTER TO PLOUGH THE FIRST HALF ACRE IN SALT LAKE VALLEY, JULY, 1847. ALSO THE FIRST FURROW IN ST. GEORGE CITY, FEB., 1862. THE plow which turned the first furrows in the valley of the Great Salt Lake inaugurated a system of agriculture in Amer- ica that today is practiced in most of the states west of the Mississippi river. An half acre of land was plowed on that July morning, and a small ditch was made which led the waters of City Creek on to the soil. A great task was undertaken, and it is a lesson in physical and moral fortitude to know in what spirit that task was conceived. The "Mormon" pioneers were moving into