THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with 

 this object in view it requests its rtaders everywhere to send in photographs and 

 pictures of fields, orchards and farm homes: prize-taKing horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. 

 A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us improve the appearance of THE AGE? 



AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF 



ALASKA. 



A second report on the investigations of 

 the agricultural capabilities of Alaska, or- 

 dered by Congress, has been issued. The 

 investigations were conducted last year 

 under the direction of the Director of the 

 Office of Experiment Stations of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, by Prof. C. C. 

 Georgeson, who is thoroughly familiar 

 with the conditions of agriculture in 

 northern Europe, and who has had a long 

 experience as professor and experiment 

 worker in Japan And Kansas. At the 

 same time the 'Weather Bureau undertook 

 the establishment of a special meteoro- 

 logical service for Alaska, and it was ar- 

 ranged that headquarters for Professor 

 Georgeson and the Weather Bureau ob- 

 server should be first established at Sitka. 

 Prof. Georgeson did not reach Sitka un- 

 til May 12, and the late start he was thus 

 obliged to make in his experiments was a 

 serious drawback to their success. He 

 found no broken land sufficient for ex- 

 periments on a field scale, but through 

 the courtesy of the governor of the terri- 

 tory, a priest of the Russian church, and 

 the superintendent of the Presbyterian 

 Mission School he was enabled to obtain 

 enough land to make experiments on a 

 small scale. 



In spite of the late planting, oats, bar- 

 ley, flax, potatoes, and a number of differ- 

 ent kinds of vegetables of good quality 

 matured, and clover and grasses made an 

 excellent growth. Useful data were also 

 obtained from these experiments regard- 

 ing the effect of different soil conditions 



on the germination of seeds and the growth 

 of plants. 



The botanical survey which was made, 

 resulted in quite an addition to the num- 

 ber of specimens of flora. Several speci- 

 mens were found which may prove of con- 

 siderable value as sand binders, for which 

 there is great need in many localities in 

 the United States. 



The work of the past two seasons in- 

 dicates how experimental investigations 

 may be most efficiently prosecuted in 

 Alaska, and arrangements will be made 

 during the coming year for systematic 

 experimental inquiries in that territory. 



PRESERVING EGGS. 



One of the many things needed by the 

 farmer is a cheap and simple method of 

 preserving eggs, so that he may put away 

 eggs in the summer, when they are worth 

 but five or ten cents a dozen, for use in 

 the winter when it is almost impossible to 

 obtain eggs at. thirty cents a dozen. 

 Dwellers in Chicago have paid fifty cents 

 a dozen at times this past winter, for cold 

 storage eggs. Lime, salt or briue, cold 

 storage will preserve eggs after a fashion, 

 but hen fruit so kept will be far from 

 having the taste of fresh eggs. 



E. F. Ladd, of the North Dakota Agri- 

 cultHral College, at Fargo, recently made 

 experiments in this connection, and found 

 that water glass is the most efficacious sub- 

 stance for preserving eggs. Eggs pre- 

 served in it for three and a half months 

 tasted as well as the average fresh egg on 

 the market. Contrary to the usual ex- 

 j.erience with packed eggs, the yolk rt- 



