630 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



more per acre than Fife varieties and have been less affected by rust. 

 The Improved Ligowa oat stands at the head of 23 varieties tested. 

 Six-rowed types have given the best j'ields of barley, and of these 

 Manshury is much the best. White Canada held peas have yielded 

 the best of the peas grown. With forage plants red and alsike clovers 

 have done better on light soils than the true grasses. Bromus inermls 

 has given the best results of the grasses tested on light soil. American 

 Wonder has given the highest average yield of the potatoes grown for 

 3 years — 260. -1 bu. per acre. The farm is considered as being very 

 nearly the most northerly point at which apples can be grown. The 

 varieties thus found hardy are Silken Leaf and Christmas; crab apples, 

 Martha and Virginia. 



Report of agricultural investigations in Alaska in 1899, C. C. 

 Georgesox {U. S. Dept. Agr.^ ^^'<^'« of Experiment Stations Bui, 

 82, p^p. 55, ph. 17). — This bulletin deals more especially with the estab- 

 lishment of agricultural experiment stations at Sitka and Kenai, and 

 the growing of cereals, forage plants, flax, and vegetables at these 

 stations and at Kadiak. 



Experiments in making and storing silage and in making hay from 

 native grasses have been successfully carried out during the year. 

 New lands have been cleared, and the value of lime in correcting the 

 acidity of fresh soil demonstrated. The Alaskan soil is fertile, and 

 when properly drained and treated is productive. All of the common 

 hardy vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, peas, 

 onions, carrots, parsnips, parsley, lettuce, celery, radishes, turnips, 

 beets, and the like, of excellent qualitj^, have been grown successfully, 

 and many garden flowers do well. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, 

 melons, and sweet corn are not successful. Red, mammoth, alsike, 

 and white clovers grow luxuriantly. They have withstood the win- 

 ters, and the earlier blooms matured seed. Vetches, lupines, rape, 

 field peas, and timothy have likewise grown vigorously, and yielded a 

 large amount of forage. Wheat, barley, oats, flax, rye, and buck- 

 wheat have all matured. Some of the serious drawbacks to grain 

 growing in Alaska are the heavy growth of straw induced hy the moist 

 climate and the difficulty of harvesting on account of the abundant 

 fall rains which set in early in September and even in August. Flax 

 grows especiall}' well, producing straw from 2i to 3 ft. high and of 

 good fiber. Flaxseed has regular!}- matured. 



Notes on the growth of each of a number of varieties of all the 

 above noted crops are recorded in the report and many details given 

 regarding the clearing of land, drainage and improvement of peat 

 lands, Alaska as a stock country, value of silos in Alaska, difficulties 

 in the way of securing homesteads, etc. Letters are reported from a 

 number to whom seeds were distributed giving the results obtained. 



Meteorological data showing the temperature and weather conditions 

 in 1899 at a number of different localities are appended. 



