1858 June or July Letter to a Bishop

Title

1858 June or July Letter to a Bishop

Description

Due to past devastations and currently poor conditions counsel is given to store wheat for bread stuffs and seed.

Type

Correspondence

Sender

[Brigham Young]

Recipient

Bishop

Date

1858 June or July

Location

[Great Salt Lake]

Subject

Food Storage
Preparation

Item sets

To Bishop

Dear Sir:

The increasing population at home, and the large immigration expected the ensuing season demand us to say to you, prepare yourselves with breadstuff, that you may not experience the unpleasant situation that we have several times been in, through our isolated condition and other causes. This Territory has twice been devastated by insects, and many times water has failed for irrigating purposes, and frequently we have experienced destructive winds and hailstorms.-- our crops being blasted and blighted and this season, as far as we can learn, in a great portion of the fields from one-half to two-thirds of the growing wheat is smut, and the prospect for this year's harvest is poor. In consideration of these things, duty demands of us to say, as judges in temporal matters, see that every person in your ward is provided with and has and keeps on hand ten bushels of good merchantable wheat for bread-stuff and one bushel for seed, and know that that quantity is constantly on hand for every living soul. No person is considered to have a surplus until he has twice this amount, or twenty-two bushels to each person, positively on hand in the binn or in the sacks:-- this amount (twenty-two bushels.) is required for every person in the Territory. We also recommend, as a standard, the list of prices current, as advertised in the`Deseret News.'

We recommend a liberal price for labor, and for every one to give every possible encouragement to home manufactures, which must not be neglected.