The Brewster Branch of the Mormon Church.
From the Springfield (Ill.) Journal.
It will be recollected that last July the Brewster Brunch of the Mormon Church—a good part of it from this city—left for the Colorado country.—Letters from Mr. Brewster states that a portion of the party—comprising about one-half of it—have located near Sorcora, Valencia County, New-Mexico. They have purchased a large tract of land and commenced a settlement. Mr. Brewster says that the land pur-chased lies in the valley of the Rio Grande.
"The valley is bounded by lofty bluffs, from the summits of which back to the mountains extends a vast plain, destitute of timber, and unfit for cultiva-tion. It is, however, valuable for grazing land, as it is covered with gama grass, which might support countless herds of sheep and cattle. Along the river is some cotton wood, but the mountains afford an in-exhaustible supply of pine, cedar and pinon, and in some parts an abundance of oak and walnut.
The people of this country never make use of wood in building. All their houses are made of adobes, or unburnt brick. These adobes are made by working, up sand, peculiar to this country, into mortar, of the proper consistency, and then moulded into mortar of the proper shape, and left to dry. In a few days they become sufficiently hardened by the heat of the sun, when they are laid in the mortar of the same sand. Such is the dryness of the atmosphere, and the ab-sence of all violent storms, that walls built in this manner will stand hundreds of years.
"The soil of the valley is equal to that of the Western States, but the people of the country culti-vate it with the rudest and simplest instruments; yet they manage to raise very good crops of wheat, corn, onions, &c. The price of corn is never less than two dollars a bushel.
"The climate is very mild. The present Winter, though unusually severe, the ground was not frozen so as to prevent plowing until the 25th of December, and it was again in a condition for plowing on the 10th of January.
"At present we have a cloudless sky, and the weather seems more like April than like January, in fact there is no appearance of Winter in the val-ley, although the lofty mountains a few miles to the West are still covered with snow to the depth of several feet. This valley possesses an atmosphere of the greatest purity and healthfulness, far superior to that of any part of the United States. There are no swamps or marshes here and nothing to produce sickness or disease as in the Western States. Such is the purity of the air that objects at the distance of twenty miles appear as distinctly visible as they do in the States at the distance of five miles. The sun appears just as brilliant the instant it rises above the horizon as it does at noonday. The moon and stars shine here with a luster unknown in the States, and are never obscured by fogs and smoke when near the horizon, but shine with undiminished luster until hid behind the rocky summits of the Western moun-tains."
The settlement thus commenced being on the west side of the Rio Grande, is known in the Brewster revelation as the Amli country, to which the church were directed to repair for an inheritance. So says Mr. Brewater, who, most unquestionably, under-stands all these matters.
