AGKICULTUKAL 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- 
