44 STORING OF WHEAT In 1876 President Brigham Young, realizing the importance of an adequate food supply for his isolated people in Utah, instituted the grain saving movement. The crops had been threatened and even destroyed from time to time in those early days by the elements and by grasshoppers and other insects. Being cut off from the rest of the country ir seemed imperative that the people should prepare for an emergency. The early settlers were in constant fear of famine and the mission of saving and storing grain was given especially to those sturdy pioneer women who made up the body of the Relief Society at that time, with Emmeline B. Wells to direct the project. From 1876 until the World War, nearly fifty years later, the organization had on hand constantly a large supply of wheat and a substantial wheat fund. In early days the women bought wheat with funds raised in various ways. They made and sold quilts and other articles. Sunday eggs were donated to them and sold. At harvest time they went into the wheat fields and gleaned wheat. In 1880, when the church celebrated its fifieth anniversary jubilee, the Relief Society, by way of a special offering, gave all the wheat they had stored to the farmers for seed. This amounted to several thousand bushels. On other occasions when there has been crop failures the Relief Society has given from their store, seed for the next years crop. Upon various occasions when disaster has occured the Relief Society has donated wheat or flour. A notable example of this was the car load of flour sent to San Francisco at the tome of the earthquake and fire in 1906. They were the first agency in the united States to offer help with more than a carload of bedding and hospital supplies, they also sent a carload of flour to China a year later for sufferers from famine. The wheat was first stored in bins, in some instances provided by bishops, in others by the women themselves. Later granaries were built and finally the grain was stored in church elevators. At the time of the owrld war the Relief Society had on hand more than 100,000 bushels of wheat which was turned over to the food administration, the price being set by the govern¬ment. In addition to the wheat the Relief Society had a substantial wheat fund. Believing the grain saving movement had accomplished its early mission and with a view if meeting some of the present day needs, it was recommended, after the close of the war, by Mrs. Clarissa S. Williams, then president of the Relief Society, that the wheat trust fund amountinf to $412,000. be centralized at the presiding bishop's office and the interest be used for health, maternity and child welfare. This recommendation was formally presented to the Relief Society conference in April 1922 and unanimously adopted by the society. This action occured just seven months prior to the final enactment of the Sheppard Towner Bill by Congress providing for national aid for maternity and infancy. It is significant and also most appropriate that the bill providing for Utah' acceptance of the provision of this federal act and qualifing for its adoption was introduced in the Utah legislature in 1923 by a Relief Society woman and a member of the General Board, Mrs. Amy Brown Lyman, who was a member of the house and succeeded in putting the measure through without a dissenting vote. The wheat trust fund was soon centralized after April 1922, and is now held in trust for the various branches in ownership. The interest is paid annually to each branch, according to its ownership in the trust fund, to be used by such branch to promote local health, maternity and child welfare. The above topic was given by Jenna Rich at the meeting of the Daughters of Pioneers held on Friday, March 29, 1935. STORING OF FOODS done 22 As early as 1850 meat was cured. Pork was salted and venison was salted and cut in long strips and dried in the sun. aear meat was also cured. Later beef, mutton and fish were salted and pork and fish were smoked. Vegetables were stored for winter use in cellars and pits. Corn was usually shelled by the boys. The kernels were shelled from the ear by means of some rough edged tool and then dried. Dried pumpkins were common and baked squash was a delicacy. Squash was cut in round strips and dried. when the weather was cold the strips were hung on rafters in the house. Later cabbage was put, heads down, in a deep trench and filled in with earth. Later it was made into kraut. Chokecherries and service berries were preserved with molasses and sugar made from beets. They were also dried. Many wild fruits were used, wild currants were made into jam with molasses, they were also dried on plates with a little sugar. Later apples and peaches were dried and peaches were preserved with molasses. It was the custom of young people, when coming home from a dance, to have a snack of sweets, so a preserved peach was taken out of mother's peach crock and a certain young man could not bite into his. upon examination it was found to be a mouse. Prepared by Mrs. Caroline Compton and given at the meeting of the Daughters of Pioneers held Friday, March 29, 1935.