The mail from the east due here towards the last
of May arrived here on the 4th inst, and contained 44 letters
for this Territory; whereas our friend Leonard I. Smith was
at Independence (on his way home from the Cape of Good Hope)
when the mail started, and was told by the clerk there that he
had put up from five to ten thousand letters for Salt Lake
within a day or two!! The June mail arrived here on the 28th
inst, but has brought no tidings of the missing letter sacks. I suppose
the Contractor is shewing his gratitude in this way for the appropriation
by Congress of $36,000 extra pay for keeping us without a mail
the whole of last winter from the 1st Dec to the 10th of May!!
We are still a little plagued with grasshoppers, the wheat crops in Box Elder County being eaten off; we are also troubled with
drouth and scarcity of water; yet we shall make out to harvest
a crop, though not an average one by any means.
The canal from Big Cottonwood is so far finished as to bring
the water to irrigate the 10 and five acre lots in the Big Field.
You will ^have^ received a programme of our intended celebration of
the 4th July from the Post Office.
Prest. Young and Kimball have been spending a few days on the Island in Salt Lake; they as well as Prest. Grant are in good health
The Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society are
holding weekly meetings, and making great efforts to carry out
their objects; there is to be an Exhibition this fall.
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We have been over to the Public Works, and find they are casting
moulds to run pig lead into from the furnace.
I am spending most of my time in this office compiling the history
of the last days of Joseph and Hyrum.
The weather has been very dry and warm for the last few
weeks.
The people are generally enjoying good health.
Two new boats have been taken to the ferry at Bear River, and
there is a ferry newly started on the Weber.
Respectfully yours
Wilford Woodruff
by Thomas Bullock Clerk