AGKICULTTJKAL DEVELOPMENT IN ALASKA. 21 



The only assistance the Alaskan farmer needs is to furnish him with the 

 hardier varieties of everything that is adapted to a northern country, and any 

 man who is a practical farmer can not help but make money farming in Alaska. 

 This is my opinion and experience from 14 years here. 



The Salchaket Trading Post is about 50 miles up the Tanana from 

 Fairbanks. W. F. Munson, the proprietor, writes from that point 

 on July 16, 1912 : 



I raised last year, successfully, cabbage, beets, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, 

 rutabagas, rhubarb, carrots, celery, peas, cauliflower, green tomatoes for pick- 

 ling, cucumbers, and kohl-rabi, all raised out of doors, and could have raised 

 many more varieties, but did not have the seed. I sold very little, as we use 

 the produce in the road house and have many animals to feed, such as pigs, 

 cows, chickens, horses, and a young bull moose. It takes quite a lot of feed 

 for the stock. Grain hay is also very successfully raised here, but does not 

 mature in all places. The difficulties here are transportation and unreliable 

 seed. 



The foregoing letters from settlers are geographically representa- 

 tive of the localities in Alaska in which farming is feasible, but they 

 are to be understood as giving only glimpses of the entire range of 

 the conditions and farming possibilities. 



GRAIN RAISING IN ALASKA. 



Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are grown and ripened practically 

 every year at the two agricultural experiment stations, maintained 

 by the Office of Experiment Stations, at Fairbanks on the Tanana and 

 at Rampart on the Yukon. Noting the fact that the latter station is 

 only 75 miles from the Arctic Circle it might readily be assumed 

 that if the grains are ripened there grain growing could be success- 

 fully undertaken throughout a considerable portion of the Yukon 

 drainage and even more certainly so in the more southerly areas that 

 have been mentioned as having agricultural possibilities. 



It has already been stated in this paper that the best land for 

 farming is that which lies on the south slope of the low hills, just back- 

 of the benches and bottoms that lie along the streams. This indicates 

 that the good tillable land will be found in comparatively small and 

 isolated tracts, a condition that is not favorable to commercial grain 

 growing by modern methods. Unquestionably, small grain can be 

 grown and matured over a wide area in the interior, but it is quite 

 doubtful if it can be done with profit at the present time other than 

 for stock-food purposes. Even with the heavy freight charges from 

 the States to points in interior Alaska, flour from the States can prob- 

 ably be had for less money than would be required to produce the 

 wheat on Alaska farms and mill it in the Territory under the scale 

 of wages now prevailing in Alaska. In this connection it is to be re- 

 membered that the Puget Sound ports are close to a great wheat- 



