ALASKA EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 293 



About half a mile northwest of Copper Center, near the Government 

 trail, is the southeast corner of a tract of land a mile square that I 

 staked and reserved for an agricultural experiment station by posting 

 a notice on this corner stake. 



At Copper Center Mr. Davis, the proprietor of the hotel, showed 

 me some grain that had been grown in the garden of a Mr. Holeman, 

 who formerly was in the hotel business here, and who has settled on 

 80 acres of land upon which the town is now built. Of this grain oats 

 made a fine showing, there being 3 feet 9 inches of straw, with well 

 filled heads of fully matured grain. Rye stood 6 feet 2 inches high, 

 but the grain though fully formed had been damaged somewhat by the 

 recent frosts. The wheat showed a fine stand of tall strong straw, the 

 grain being in much the same condition as that of the rye. These 

 grains were sown between the first and the middle of June, and would 

 all have made excellent feed. I am told that seeding may begin here 

 early in May, in which case spring rye and wheat will mature, and 

 certainly fall wheat and rye, as well as barley and oats, will mature 

 perfectly. I also saw some grains that were sown rather late in June 

 by one of Captain Abercrombie's men from seed furnished by the Sitka 

 Experiment Station. They were similar to those grown in the garden 

 of Mr. Holeman as regards maturity. 



I spent the 23d day of September looking over the surroundings of 

 Copper Center, and I am satisfied that in many respects it is one of the 

 best locations for an experiment station that I have seen. The soil is 

 fertile, can be cleared and worked easily, most of the ground having 

 recently been burned over, and, if I have been informed correctly, there 

 are no frosts in the summer months, and the land is typical of large 

 areas in the Copper River Valley. A station here might be beneficial 

 to the natives of this section; they are not a progressive race and they 

 are the least resourceful of the Indians in Alaska that I have seen. 

 From a physical standpoint they are not the equals of the Indians on 

 the coast or the Yukon Indians; nor are they anything like as pro- 

 gressive. Many of them still live in shelters covered with bark, and 

 their methods of fishing are decidedly crude. The apparatus for tak- 

 ing the fish is a willow basket fastened to a spruce pole. The fisher- 

 man walks out on a rude platform, which extends over the stream, and 

 he uses his basket as a dip net. Fish is the principal food of these 

 people, and when the salmon run is light, the indifferent catch that may 

 be made with the basket nets is not sufficient to keep hunger from the 

 camp during the winter. Large game is becoming scarce, and each 

 day the Indians' chances for making a living become less. They seem 

 willing to help themselves if shown how, and it may be that they will 

 plant gardens if they could see that a benefit was to be derived from so 

 doing. If something is not done for them, the Indians of the Copper 

 River will soon have passed away. 



There are difficulties in the way of establishing an agricultural 



