308 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES OF THE COPPER RIVER VALLEY AND ITS ATTRACTIVE 

 FEATURES FOR THE SMALL FARMER. 



Having watched for the past twenty years the growth of our former Northern 

 frontier, i. e., Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington; having traversed the Yellow- 

 stone, Gallatin, Spokane, and other valleys prior to the advent of the rancher and 

 the railroad, I feel qualified in a measure to give an intelligent opinion relative to 

 the capabilities of the soil and the prospects of the small farmer who is constantly 

 on the move in the search of a home in a new country. 



I find the conditions as varying in different parts of the Copper River Valley as 

 the great range of climatic conditions would naturally dictate. The disappearance 

 of the snow and the sprouting of the grass varies at least forty-five days in different 

 portions of the valley. Along almost every route that has been traveled by pack 

 animals will be found scattering spears of timothy and grain. 



I shall first consider the route traveled by the pioneer horsemen of the season of 

 1898, as that was the only year in which pack animals were used over the route from 

 Valdez to Copper Center via the Valdez Glacier and Klutena River. During the 

 past season spears of timothy and grain were found along this trail, which would 

 indicate that the original seeding of 1898 reseeded itself, with the result of a volun- 

 teer crop in 1900, which to my mind is conclusive evidence that, when acclimated, 

 grain and hay will both mature and bring forth abundant crops. From the evidence 

 obtained in a small experimental garden it is an assured fact that potatoes, turnips, 

 beets, peas, lettuce, radishes, and possibly many other vegetables will grow in 

 abundance when the proper soil, exposure, and drainage are obtained. As the 

 existence of the small farmer is conditional on the laws of supply and demand, it 

 will be necessary, too, in this instance, having found the supply, to point out the 

 probable demand. Two hundred and fifty miles inland from Port Valdez, in a 

 northerly direction, lie the gold fields of the Chesna mining district, which, in my 

 opinion, in the next few years will produce many millions of dollars of gold dust. 



There is to-day, aside from the 200 or 300 head of horses, the property of the 

 Government and individual owners, absolutely no means of transportation between 

 these two points — Valdez and the headwaters of the Chestochena River. A pack 

 animal loaded with forage at Valdez, if no means of subsistence were to be had en 

 route, would consume more than the forage he could pack before reaching his desti- 

 nation, which fact is attested by the scores of dead horses whose carcasses mark the 

 advancement of settlement along the Trans- Alaskan Military Road. Hay and grain 

 to-day at Port Valdez, original cost and marine transportation added, will average 

 $40 per ton. This forage can not be transported into the Copper River Valley to the 

 crossing of the Tonsena for less than 25 cents per pound, and then the margin to the 

 freighter is extremely meager. Therefore the opportunities to-day awaiting the 

 small farmer who will select his homestead judiciously along the Trans-Alaskan 

 Military Road, with a view of erecting thereon a bunk house and barn for the accom- 

 modation of man and beast, and the cultivation of forage for the animal and the 

 vegetable produce for the man, is, in my opinion, so much more enticing than the 

 inducements held out for the bleak prairies of Dakota or the wind-swept valleys of 

 the Yellowstone as to be beyond comparison. 



Referring to my report of 1899 on this subject, I would say that I am more pro- 

 foundly of the opinion to-day than ever before that the valleys of the subdrainage of 

 the Copper River Valley will in future years supply the demand for cereals and vege- 

 tables, if not meat, of the thousands of miners that will be required to extract the 

 vast deposits of metals from mother earth in the Chettyna, Kutsena, and other dis- 

 tricts. Referring to the available arable land for the cultivation of forage, I shall 

 eliminate the coast range entirely, for the reason that, owing to the heavy fall of snow 

 the spring is generally one month later than in the Copper River Valley, the crest of 



