EDITORIAL. 703 



rains and high humidity. Hardly more than a beginning can be made 

 at that place during this season. Arrangements have been made with 

 a resident of Kadiak to begin experiments on old ground at that place; 

 and cooperative trials will be made at various other places, so that a 

 quite extensive area of country will be included in the work this year. 



The headquarters of the Weather Bureau will be moved into the 

 interior, but it will continue to cooperate with the Alaska station, and 

 will make observations on soil temperatures at different places. 



Professor Georgeson will remain in charge of the work, and will reach 

 Alaska about the middle of April. He will take with him Mr. C. H. 

 Robison, a graduate of the Michigan Agricultural College in 1895, as 

 assistant at Sitka, and Mr. H. P. Melsen, formerly of the Kansas Agri- 

 cultural College, as assistant at Kenai for the summer. He has also 

 engaged three laborers to go to Alaska for the summer, as there is diffi- 

 culty in procuring satisfactory farm laborers there. Several yoke of 

 oxen will be shipped there from Oregon, and a full line of implements, 

 including wagons, stump pullers, plows, cultivators, harrows, hand tools, 

 etc., will be taken. 



The new station will not be on the same basis as the stations receiv- 

 ing the Hatch fund. It will be maintained by funds appropriated for 

 the Secretary of Agriculture and not subject to the provisions of the 

 Hatch Act. It will be conducted under the supervision of this Office, 

 as the Alaska investigations of the past two years have been, and 

 reports of its operations will be made to Congress annually. Moreover, 

 its problems will be different from those presented to stations in States 

 where agriculture is already a reality. There can not be said to be any 

 agriculture in that vast tract of country at present. Aside from the 

 products of small gardens and the fishing industry, the country is 

 almost entirely dependent for its food supplies on materials shipped 

 there. An important function of the station will be to prepare the way 

 for agriculture and to aid in its development. It will be necessary to 

 demonstrate the capabilities of different sections of the country, deter- 

 mine the best methods of managing the soil, procure varieties of plants 

 suited to the climate and the season, devise methods for preserving 

 forage crops, etc. 



Much interest in the establishment of a station has developed among 

 people who have gone to Alaska during the past few years. It has 

 become apparent to them that if the mineral wealth of the Territory is 

 to be developed, sufficient agriculture should be developed, if possible, to 

 furnish at least a part of the food products required by the increasing 

 population, thus reducing the cost and furnishing a greater diversity of 

 industries. If it can be shown that it is possible for a man to live there 

 on the product of the land, without being entirely dependent on the 

 mines, a strong factor will have been gained for the development of the 

 country. If the home markets can be supplied with the principal food 

 products, the independence of this isolated country will be materially 

 increased and it will become a far more attractive place in which to live. 



