276 GANNETT 



ably exceeding, the great Klondike discovery, for many 

 millions appear to be in sight, awaiting the pan or 

 rocker to separate the golden sand. The harvest of gold 

 from Cape Nome during the summer of 1900 was $5,000- 

 ooo and the total product of the Territory from placers in 

 1899 was $5,500,000. 



But after the enumeration of these latent resources of the 

 Territory few are left to describe. Alaska is not a country 

 for agriculture, nor for home-making. It has paid us its 

 purchase price many times over, and in the future will pour 

 much wealth into our laps, but it will never pay, as other 

 accessions to our territory have paid, in making homes for 

 our people. At present few people go to Alaska to live; 

 they go merely to stay until they have made their stake. 



Farming as a business is impossible under the climatic 

 conditions prevalent on the coast. It is granted at once 

 that it is possible to mature certain hardy crops in favor- 

 able seasons, but this is quite a different thing from raising 

 crops in competition with California and the Willamette 

 valley, even when the cost of freight is added. It must 

 be done at a profit or not at all. It is of no avail to raise 

 potatoes when they can be brought from Portland and 

 sold for less than the cost of production in Alaska. If 

 there is any part of the Territory in which farming can be 

 successfully carried on, it is the interior, which has a much 

 more favorable summer climate than the coast; but even 

 there success is doubtful. However, as the higher rate of 

 freight to the interior will have the effect of a protective 

 tariff on home products, it may be possible to raise grain 

 and vegetables at a profit under conditions which would 

 be prohibitory on the coast. 



SCENERY. 



There is one other asset of the Territory not yet enumer- 

 ated, imponderable, and difficult to appraise, yet one of the 



