278 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



actual climate and soil of the Yukon watershed, let us see what they are, what they 

 are doing for agriculture and can do. The records are incomplete, but they show a 

 high range of temperature which will surprise the uninformed. At Fort Yukon, 

 which is just inside the Arctic Circle, Dr. W. H. Dall, now in the Government serv- 

 ice, reported in 1868 that the temperature in July " not in the direct rays of the sun" 

 was 112° F. In June, 1900, the record for the month showed a maximum of 93°, and 

 in July 87°. At Eagle, near the Canadian border, May to August, inclusive, showed 

 a daily average maximum of 79°. Holy Cross Mission, which is less than 350 miles 

 from St. Michael, showed an average maximum for May to September, 1899, of 69°, 

 with a maximum of 82°. The 6-inch soil thermometer at Fort Yukon gave a daily 

 average for June, 1899, of 50.8°, and July gave 54.9°. At Eagle, August gave a daily 

 average of 53° for the 6-inch soil thermometer. The minimum surface temperature 

 during June, July, and August was 25 in August at Eagle, 27 in June at Fort Yukon, 

 and 24 in June at Holy Cross. These minimum temperatures may seem adverse to 

 agricultural success, but the cold was of exceeding brief duration, the soil was warm, 

 and the sun shone almost throughout the twenty-four hours, and the frost though 

 sharp was not killing. Further, it is to be remembered that the points named are 

 most exposed, that Eagle is in the foothiMs, Fort Yukon within the Arctic Circle, and 

 Holy Cross is subject to the cooling influence of Bering Sea. In other words, the 

 places named are not selected and not the best suited for agriculture. 



FIRST EXPERIMENTS MADE. 



Naturally the first experiments have been made along "the main traveled road," 

 the great waterway, and while even there the experiments are pregnant with prom- 

 ise, it is in the smaller valleys of the larger affluents of the Yukon that, I believe, 

 the richest future lies. On the verge of the Yukon itself the winds blow up or down 

 according to the season, but in the smaller valleys the wind is still or milder, and the 

 vegetation more luxuriant. This is true of the streams to the north, but much more 

 so of those to the south. Professor Georgeson tells of a great natural meadow some 

 20 miles long by 4 or 5 wide within the Arctic Circle east of the Koyukuk, and I have 

 been told by reliable persons of a similar meadow 7 on the Dall River. South of the 

 Yukon lies the great valley of the Tanana, which is nearly as long as and has a val- 

 ley that is wider in places than the Connecticut, the Hudson, or the Sacramento. It 

 rises in the Alaskan coast range and enters the Yukon at Fort Gibbon, 80 miles west 

 of Rampart, and nearly midway between St. Michael and Dawson. In the last half 

 of May, 1899, I made an expedition up the Minook from Rampart and over the 

 divide into the Tanana watershed. The ice still closed the greater part of Minook, 

 and snow was on the ground and the air chill. On crossing the divide the scene 

 shifted. The air was as mild as possible; the red top grass was as high as my shoul- 

 der; lupines and vetches were in bloom, and berries and fiWers of many kinds. 

 The creeks were all open, and the season seemed two months ahead of the Yukon. 

 In 1900 the Yukon broke up at Rampart in the third week of May, while the Tanana 

 broke the second week in April. During winter rain never falls in the Yukon. On 

 the Tanana it rained, to my knowledge, in December, 1899, and in January, 1901. 

 It is in this valley that I believe agriculture and stock raising will be found most 

 practicable. Speaking of stock raising, Captain Abercrombie, of the Army, lost a 

 horse in the Tanana Valley in the fall of 1898 and found it well and hearty in the 

 spring of 1899, and a miner named Green, who worked for me last winter, had the 

 same experience in the winter of 1900. At Holy Cross they have a herd of five cat- 

 tle, four of which are native born, and all are well nourished on native grasses, while 

 horses have wintered and worked all winter on mixed feed and native hay during 

 the past four years at Eagle, Circle, Rampart, and Fort Gibbon. I owned a cayuse 

 which was worked hard all winter, had no covering for protection in the coldest 

 of weather, and is fat and hearty to-day, although the thermometers all failed to 



