AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ALASKA. 11 



miles of such land, and not less than 3,000 square miles in the Cook 

 Inlet region, including the Matanuska and Susitna drainage areas. 

 It is estimated that there are 8,000 square miles of tillable land in the 

 Tanana Valley and possibly twice that area in other portions of the 

 Yukon drainage, much of this being in the Yukon Flats. 



IS FARMING FEASIBLE IN ALASKA? 



It is hardly necessary to prove that agriculture is feasible in 

 Alaska other than by citing examples of successful gardening, farm- 

 ing, and stock raising at widely separated points. First in impor- 

 tance is the agricultural experiment station work of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture that has been carried on by the 

 Office of Experiment Stations for 15 years. There are four of these 

 stations; one at Sitka, the headquarters station, in southeastern 

 Alaska ; one at Kodiak, in the southwestern portion ; and two in the 

 interior, one of which is at Fairbanks on the Tanana and one at 

 Rampart on the Yukon, the latter being within 75 miles of the 

 Arctic Circle. Stations were successfully maintained for a few years 

 at Copper Center, in the Copper River Valley, 100 miles from the 

 coast, and at Kenai, on the eastern shore of Cook Inlet. 



At the Sitka station much work has been done in the testing of 

 varieties of potatoes and other vegetables, making fertilizer ex- 

 periments, and in the hybridizing of fruits. In this last work some 

 very promising results have been obtained in crossing the native 

 strawberry with cultivated sorts. The Fairbanks station is being 

 conducted largely as a demonstration of the feasibility of farming 

 as a business. At Rampart much attention is given to the testing 

 and breeding of varieties of grains suited to the climate. Varieties 

 of wheat, oats, rye, and barley, and of potatoes and many other vege- 

 tables have matured every season since the work started at these two 

 most northern stations. The Kodiak station is devoted to animal- 

 husbandry work, and an effort is being made to develop dairy cattle 

 suitable to Alaskan conditions by selection and breeding from the 

 herd of Galloway cattle now at the station. Sheep husbandry is 

 also being given attention. 



Successful home and market gardens are found at numerous points 

 in southeastern Alaska. — Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Seward; in 

 the Cook Inlet region (fig. 2) ; and all along the Yukon and Tanana. 

 Some of the more hardy vegetables are grown in favorable localities 

 far above the Arctic Circle, on the Chandalar, Koyukuk, and other 

 streams. A successful cattle raiser is located on a homestead near 

 Juneau; a homesteader at Circle, on the Yukon, is establishing a 

 herd and building silos and barns; and there are good dairies at 

 Juneau, Skagway, Fairbanks, and Nome. 



