AGRICULTUKAL DEVELOPMENT IN ALASKA. 15 



Proceeding eastward along the south coast to Cordova, the tide- 

 water terminus of the Copper River & Northwestern Railroad, and 

 northward on this road 131 miles, we come to the mouth of the 

 Chitina, the largest affluent of the Copper River. The railroad, 

 which ultimately will be continued on up the Copper River to the 

 interior, now turns eastward up the north bank of the Chitina to the 

 Bonanza copper mine, 196 miles from the dock at Cordova. From 

 the mouth of the Chitina the road lies on a bench with banks quite 

 high above the river. This bench is 50 to 60 miles long and averages 

 from 5 to 6 miles in width to where the high mountains lying to the 

 northward develop. This bench, with its southern exposure, has 

 conditions quite favorable for farming. The district also has the 

 advantage of being connected by rail with regular steamers at Cor- 

 dova and of being contiguous to the rich copper and other mineral 

 fields that will soon afford good markets for farm products. 



Pig. 5. — Thomas Knudson's dairy herd and homestead, 10 miles from Juneau, Alaska, 



May 23, 1911. 



A number of homesteads have been located on the bench mentioned. 

 The locator of one of these, George W. Wolfe, writes, on February 

 25, 1912, as follows : 



I have now on my place about 12 acres cleared and plowed and ready to put 

 under cultivation. I believe that I told you irrigation would be necessary in 

 this section, and to meet this need have dug an irrigation ditch about one-half 

 mile in length, but cold weather coming on, I could not finish this, and it will 

 probably take a month for two men in the spring to put it in condition to carry 

 water. Furthermore, as I had my team to take care of during the winter, I 

 got out enough logs and timber to do for all necessary buildings. You are 

 probably aware that it is no small undertaking for anybody to cultivate land 

 in Alaska, or elsewhere, unless he has ample means to see himself through for 

 a couple of years. I am solely dependent on what I can earn during the few 

 months of winter, which is not enough to keep me going during the summer. 

 This seems to be the only drawback that I know of to farming here. Last fall 



