As the valley presented itself to view before the gaze of this sturdy band of pioneers, President Young expressed his full satisfaction with the place. The Lord had shown him the view before in a vision; and now as he lay upon his bed (still physically indisposed) in Elder Woodruff's carriage, the Lord also showed him many things concerning the future of the valley; and with one united testimony, the pioneer company felt that they had reached their destination. They could now rest the soles of their feet in peace and be free from fury of angry mobs. That was sixty years ago; and in view of the great change which has been brought about, we are led to exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" Then, sage-brush plain, with no inhabitants excepting the wandering Lamanite, not a building, not a fence, not a furrow, the silence of a barren desert reigned supreme. To-day, a mighty city of 100,000 people stands, with a Temple of the Lord, many houses of worship and of learning, modern inventions, and all other evidences of civilization. It is one of the most beautiful cities in all the land, where the weary traveler and the home-seeker from nearly every land and clime have found a place of rest. What a debt of gratitude these busy thousands owe to the pioneers of sixty years ago will not be fully known until they are quickened by a perfect understanding of man's relationship to God and man, and the purposes of a Supreme Being. Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow, and a number of others had entered the valley two days before and had already plowed by the side of two small streams nearly five acres of land. After gazing a short time over the valley, the company moved over the {315} table-land into the valley about four miles to the encampment of their brethren. Brother Woodruff had one-half bushel of potatoes, and before eating his dinner, he planted them in the earth and hoped, by the blessings of the Lord, to save enough for seed the following year. There were no idlers in the camp, all were busy as bees. They dammed up one creek, and before night had spread the water over a large tract and irrigated the parched ground. This was the beginning of irrigation in the Salt Lake Valley, July 24, 1847. Since then the work of irrigation has spread abroad in all the arid regions of the West from Nebraska to California. The various methods of utilizing the water have been studied and improved. Irrigation has occupied the attention of great minds assembled in Congresses to discuss the subject, and has been considered in the legislative halls of the nation; but the pioneers in this enterprise were the little band of faithful and great men led by the Prophet Brigham Young to the Valleys of the Mountains.