1918.] EDITORIAL. 603 



With the construction by the Government of a raih'oad connecting 

 Seward and Fairbanks, Alaska, attention has been directed to the 

 character of some of the regions through which it passes. Under 

 the auspices of the Alaskan Engineering Commission, a reconnois- 

 sance survey of part of this Territory was made by the Bureau of 

 Soils of this Department in 1914. In the Cook Inlet-Susitna region, 

 there is reported to be more than a million and a quarter acres of 

 land possessing topographic and drainage characteristics and chem- 

 ical and physical properties quite favorable to farming. About one- 

 half of this good land is to be found in the Susitna and Matanuska 

 Valleys. 



In making appropriations for this Department for 1918, Congress 

 authorized the establishment of an agricultural experiment station 

 in the Matanuska Valley. In anticipation of such action, a pre- 

 liminary survey of the valley was made in 1915 and a site for the 

 station selected and reserved about two miles from Matanuska Junc- 

 tion, the point where the branch line from the Matanuska coal 

 mines joins the main line. This tract, which embraces 240 acres, was 

 set aside for use as an agricultural experiment station by executive 

 order dated September 20, 1915. 



The entire area of the valley is more or less covered with birch and 

 spruce timber, with cottonwoods along the creek bottoms. The soil 

 is a silt loam that has been found by settlers to be fairly productive. 

 Even before the railroad was begun there were some settlers in these 

 valleys, and there are now several hundred homesteads in the vicinity 

 of the station. This region differs from those in which the other ex- 

 periment stations in Alaska are located in that it combines some of 

 the continental features found in the interior valleys with the modi- 

 fied climatic conditions of the coast. 



In the spring of 1916 some cooperative work was begun with a 

 number of farmers to test various grains that had been produced at 

 the Fairbanks station. On account of unavoidable delays and a very 

 backward season early seeding was impossible, but several varieties 

 of barley and oats proved well adapted to the region and quite satis- 

 factory yields of hay and grain were reported. Some limited ex- 

 periments with vegetables and small fruits have been undertaken, 

 the results of which indicate that these also can be successfully pro- 

 duced in that region. 



With the immediately available appropriation, work was begun in 

 the spring of 1917 on the establishment of the Matanuska station. 

 Mr. F. E. Rader, who had been formerly connected with the work 

 at Rampart, was placed in charge at Matanuska, and the clearing of 

 land, erection of buildings, fences, etc., was begun. By the close of 

 the season, a number of acres had been cleared and prepared for 



