AGRICULTURAL 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. 
Fig. 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 
