ALASKA EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 279 



register the extreme cold Ox last winter, which was estimated at 70° to 80° helow 



The summer months are rainless, or nearly so, but the soil is moist and cooh while 

 the nights are bright and warm, a condition that is most favorable to steady plan 

 growth I see no good reasons why carefully selected seeds should not be found 

 oJ will be adapted to the climatic conditions. In fact, so far as known the chma e 

 does not affect the seeds adversely and the winter does not kill them. J\ bile the 

 temperatures that I have noted above are average, It must be *~£^»g£\ 

 heat during the day in the direct rays of the sun is intense. On July 4, 1900 I 

 noted the thermometer at the Alaska Commercial Company's store at Rampart to be 

 110° while this year at Nulato on July 24, at midday on the river it was 117 , and 1 

 have noted abovl that Dr. Dall found it at 112° at Fort Yukon. With tempera^ 

 like these it is reasonable to assume that the climatic conditions of a great part of the 

 Yukon watershed will surely be found favorable to the.growth of rapidly maturing, 



h That C the a s 1 oil of the Yukon in itself should be capable of producing almost any 

 useful article of vegetable food should be obvious to even a care ess observer Few 

 seem to remember that the great river heads in the Rocky Mountain range; that the 

 Pellv the MacMillan, the Stewart, and the Porcupine arc to-the west side of the range 

 what the Milk, the Yellowstone, or the Missouri are to the east side; that the same 

 influences which have carried vast volumes of silt to form the riches alluvial va 1 leys 

 in the United States have operated similarly on both sides, and that the rocks whose 

 decomposition have led to forming the alluvium are the same in the case of the 

 Yukon as in that of the Mississippi; that the volume of the Yukon is greater than 

 that of the "Father of Waters," and that the deposit of the sediment is made in 

 the same way. There can be and is no real question as to the richness of the soil of 

 the Yukon Valley. The only question of importance is, " What can it be made to 

 grow? ' ' 



FACTS, NOT FANCIES. 



The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I propose to recite briefly what has 

 been done, basing my statements on those of Professor Georgeson special agent of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, and on my own observation, which 

 both complements and supplements that of Professor Georgeson, as I have been over 

 the same ground on the Yukon that he has been, and more. The statements are 

 supported by photographs, which are the first yet taken and made public o he 

 work of the United States agricultural experiment station at Rampart, and of the 

 work of the Jesuit Fathers at their Holy Cross Mission at Koserefsky, on the Yukon. 

 The photographs were taken at Rampart on July 13 and at Holy Cross on July 28, 



^Dawson, the best known point on the Yukon, the capital of the well-known Klon- 

 dike region, is, of course, in Canada. It is well up in the foothills, and has an ele- 

 vation, I believe, of 2,000 feet above sea level, yet I have seen in Dawson, at their 

 chamber of commerce, fine samples of ripe barley and oats which Professor 

 Georgeson also saw, and I was told that wheat had been ripened on the Klondike 

 River itself. At Fortymile, near the border, I was told by so many different per- 

 sons, some of whom I know to be credible witnesses, that I believed then., that an 

 old settler named Patch, so long ago as 1891, raised potatoes for sale, and also had 

 matured samples of wheat and oats. At Eagle this summer, in June, ^barley 

 and oats growing. Professor Georgeson saw them headed out on July 6, 1900, and 

 later received ripe seed and a head of ripe wheat as well. At Eagle, as at nearly every 

 other point on the river, the Jesuits have fine root crops, growing potatoes, turnips, 

 cabbages, and cauliflower, beside what the Yankees used to call "garden sass, let- 

 tuce, radishes, cress, and the like. Circle City was founded ten years ago, and while 

 the countrv round about is wet, oats have ripened there for at least three years. At 



