The University of Utah, at Salt Lake City, was organized in 185o as the University of Deseret, and placed under the control of a chancellor and board of 12 regents appointed by the governor.
It closed in 1851 for lack of funds and did not reopen until 1867, though during all this period the board was regularly appointed and functioned in supervising the public schools. In 1869 the university was reorganized to include classical and normal schools and in 1892 was given its present name. The registration in 1935-36 was 3,730 for the regular session and 688 for the sum mer session. In the extension department 1,786 more were en rolled. The proportion of men to women students was about three to two. The Utah Agricultural college at Logan has co operated efficiently with the farmers on arid-land problems. The Latter Day Saints Church maintains the Brigham Young univer sity at Provo, which had an enrolment of 2,176 in the regular session of 1934-35 and 677 in the summer session of 1935. Its 12 trustees are elected triennially by the vote of the church. Four normal schools are also supported by the Latter Day Saints. Other private schools are the Sacred Heart academy at Ogden, Logan Junior college at Logan, St. Mary of the Wasatch, Row land Hall and Westminster college at Salt Lake City, and Wasatch academy at Mount Pleasant. The 1930 census placed Utah fifth lowest among the States in illiteracy. In that year the number of illiterates within the State totalled 4,64o or 1.2% of the entire population. Most of these came from the foreign born population, of which 3.6% was illiterate.
The State prison is in Salt Lake City. The number of prisoners decreased from 321 in Dec. 1924 to 310 in Jan. 1934. Prison labour cannot be let out on contract, but "honour prisoners" are allowed to work on roads and irrigation projects, on additions and repairs to prison buildings and on the prison farm. While doing so their families are paid one dollar per day, and, at the end of his confinement, the prisoner receives a $15 gratuity. The State industrial school at Ogden, established for delinquent boys and girls, endeavours to help them by teaching manual training, home economics, print ing and mechanical repair work. A school for the deaf and blind,
also at Ogden, teaches caning of chairs, broom-making and printing and linotyping. The mental hospital, at Provo, cares for the insane. Efforts are being made to segregate the feeble minded. Legal provision is made for juvenile courts and for minors under 18 years of age.
In Utah farm lands make up but 11.9% of total land area of the State, a much smaller percentage than in any other State except Nevada. Agriculture is, where possible, dependent almost entirely upon irrigation which counteracts drought. Soil that can be watered is generally very rich. In early days, under the Mormon system, farm plots were but five, ten or twenty acres. Gradually the average size of farms grew until in 1900 it was 212.4ac., after which it slowly dropped till in 1935 it reached 203.3 acres. The total acreage in farms in 1935 was 6,239,318, of which 814,854ac. had been crop land in 1934. The total value of the crops in 1935 was estimated at $12, 200,000. Between 1925 and 1935 the acreage of farm land in creased over a million acres and the farm population from 108,856 to 138,242. The value of farm lands and buildings decreased from $192,201,366 to $158,303,329. The area irrigated in 1910, 999, 41oac., increased to 1,324,125ac. in 1930. By 1930
or $23.13 per ac. had been invested in irrigation projects. The aver age yearly cost of maintenance was $1.00 per acre. In the Straw berry project, water is brought from the east side of the Wasatch mountains through a four-mile tunnel and used in the Utah valley 45m. away. The Great Salt Lake Basin project, costing $2,915, 885, was designed to double the irrigated area in the northern valleys. Water from this project was leased for cultivation pur poses on 85,206 acres in 1935 and crops raised to the value of $3,677,382. The water of all streams in Utah is public property; the State engineer has entire charge of its distribution. As but a small portion of the irrigated land is fully supplied, projects for expansion are under way.