82 



The National Geographic Magazine 



east of the Mississippi River, exclusive 

 of the four states of Florida, Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi. It requires 

 an effort of the mind to grasp the signifi- 

 cance of such an expanse of territory. 

 There never could be a greater miscon- 

 ception in regard to a geographical fact 

 than the popular idea that it is a snow- 

 covered, inhospitable waste, and it is 

 strange that this idea should be so per- 

 sistently propagated and disseminated 

 among the people. As a matter of fact, 

 you can travel from one end of the 

 Yukon to the other in summer time 

 and never see snow. You see, on the 

 contrary, a tangle of luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion, large forests, and such delicacies 

 as wild raspberries, red currants, huckle- 

 berries, and cranberries in profusion. 

 In places the grass grows as high as a 

 man's shoulder. At Holy Cross Mis- 

 sion I desired to photograph some cat- 

 tle, native born, reared by the fathers, 

 and for that purpose asked that they 

 be turned into a meadow reserved for 

 hay. To my astonishment I found that 

 the cattle were totally out of sight when 

 they got into the grass, which reached 

 above their backs. 



Alaskan tourists are largely respon- 

 sible for the false conception which is 

 abroad in regard to the agricultural 

 possibilities of the country. The high 

 mountain range which skirts the sea 

 ■coasl: is covered with snow and glaciers. 

 It has a rugged, forbidding aspect. Peo- 

 ple who go as far north as Skagway and 

 back again to Seattle in a two weeks' 

 trip fondty imagine that they are study- 

 ing Alaska, and that they are quite pre- 

 pared to pass judgment on the whole 

 territory, when, as a matter of fact, 

 they have not been within 200 miles of 

 the 141st meridian, where Alaska proper 

 begins. To get anything like a correct 

 idea of Alaska, one must go inside. 



WHAT EXPERIMENT HAS PROVED 



Facts ought to carry greater weight 

 than theories founded on misconception. 



Now the facts are that all the hard 3- 

 vegetables are grown with marked suc- 

 cess all over Alaska south of the Arctic 

 Circle, except on the coast of Bering 

 Sea. I have never seen finer potatoes, 

 cauliflower, cabbage, kale, peas, lettuce, 

 and radishes than have been grown at 

 the experiment stations at Sitka and 

 Kenai. At Dawson I have seen a mag- 

 nificent display of native-grown vege- 

 tables comprising all the hardy kinds ; 

 and at the Chamber of Commerce rooms 

 of that town are displayed fine samples 

 of barle}r, oats, and wheat in many 

 varieties, perfectly normal in all partic- 

 ulars, and grown there by a local ex- 

 perimenter. At Eagle I have seen all 

 the foregoing crops, and in addition a 

 luxuriant growth of sweet peas, poppies, 

 mignonette, and a host of other flowers 

 in full bloom. At Hoty Cross Mission 

 I ate new potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, 

 carrots, beets, lettuce, and radishes in 

 the beginning of August, all produced 

 in the Mission gardens. At Rampart, 

 in latitude 65, a station was established 

 by the Department of Agriculture in the 

 summer of 1900. Winter rye, seeded 

 there in August of that 3 f ear, lived 

 through the winter perfect^ under a 

 good covering of snow. Although the 

 temperature fell to 70 below zero, it 

 came out in the spring in perfect con- 

 dition, and matured grain b} T the first 

 of August, 1 90 1 . Barley seeded in May 

 of the latter year was ripe bj' the mid- 

 dle of August. At the headquarters 

 station at Sitka I have for three 3 r ears 

 past grown as fine spring wheat as one 

 would wish to see (samples of it ma3 r be 

 seen at the Department of Agriculture) , 

 and barley and oats have been grown 

 there successfully for four 3 ? ears. These 

 grains have likewise been grown suc- 

 cessfully at the experiment station 

 at Kenai, on the Kenai Peninsula. 

 This station is situated in a region 

 where there are thousands of square 

 miles of land available for farming and 

 grazing. Captain W. R. Abercrombie, 



