ALASKA EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 303 



soil is a dark, sandy loam, and in the valley proper there was no nigger- 

 head or marsh land too wet for cultivation. It will probably be found 

 that the greatest drawback to cultivation is a lack of rain during 

 the growing season, although on this point we have no definite infor- 

 mation. As soon as settlers come in, who will undertake the work, 

 meteorological stations should be established, not only here but in the 

 Forty mile farming region, and in the Copper River region. How 

 broad the valley is above and below the belt under consideration we 

 do not know, but to judge from the mountains in sight it is as broad 

 or broader than at this point. 



Mr. Jones makes the important observation that this valley appears 

 to be milder than the Yukon Valley. He saw no evidence of killing 

 frost there in passing over the valley on the 17th and 18th of Septem- 

 ber, while in the Yukon Valley there had been several killing frosts 

 before that date. This evidence is confirmed by other observers. 



Mr. J. L. Green of Rampart, in a letter submitted with this report 

 (p. 309), makes the same observation. He states in effect that the spring 

 begins earlier, and the autumn frosts set in later in the Tanana Valley 

 than on the Yukon. And Mr. Erastus Brainerd states in an article 

 published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of September 29, 1901, that 

 in the spring of 1900 the ice broke on the Tanana in the second week 

 of April, while it did not break on the Yukon until the third week in 

 May, and also that during the latter half of May he found ice and 

 snow in the Yukon Valley, whereas in crossing the divide into the 

 Tanana Valley he found the redtop grass as high as his shoulder, and 

 lupines and vetches in bloom. 



Briefly stated, all evidence so far brought forward is to the effect 

 that the Tanana Valley has a considerably longer growing season than 

 the Yukon Valley. And the chances for success in farming are cor- 

 respondingly greater. So far as the writer has been able to learn, no 

 attempts at gardening or grain growing have as yet been made by 

 anybody in the Tanana Valley. There is a very promising and exten- 

 sive area of agricultural land there, but the possibilities of soil and 

 climate have not been tested. 



THE COPPER RIVER REGION. 



As already noted, the divide which separates the Tanana Valley 

 from the Copper River country is quite high and in places rugged. 

 The trail runs through a low rolling cut in the mountains, known as 

 " Man tasta Pass." The region drained by the Copper River differs 

 from the Fortymile and Tanana Valleys in that it is more broken and 

 more extensive. 



On the south it is bounded by the coast range, on the east and north 

 by the watershed which separates it from the Tanana, and on the west 

 by a divide which separates it from the Sushitna. The river rises in 



