AGKICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN ALASKA. 11 
miles of such land, and not less than 3,000 square miles in the Cook 
Inlet region, including the Matanuska and Susitna drainage areas. 
It is estimated that there are 8,000 square miles of tillable land in the 
Tanana Valley and possibly twice that area in other portions of the 
Yukon drainage, much of this being in the Yukon Flats. 
IS FARMING FEASIBLE IN ALASKA? 
It is hardly necessary to prove that agriculture is feasible in 
Alaska other than by citing examples of successful gardening, farm- 
ing, and stock raising at widely separated points. First in impor- 
tance is the agricultural experiment station work of the United 
States Department of Agriculture that has been carried on by the 
Office of Experiment Stations for 15 years. There are four of these 
stations; one at Sitka, the headquarters station, in southeastern 
Alaska ; one at Kodiak, in the southwestern portion ; and two in the 
interior, one of which is at Fairbanks on the Tanana and one at 
Rampart on the Yukon, the latter being within 75 miles of the 
Arctic Circle. Stations were successfully maintained for a few years 
at Copper Center, in the Copper River Valley, 100 miles from the 
coast, and at Kenai, on the eastern shore of Cook Inlet. 
At the Sitka station much work has been done in the testing of 
varieties of potatoes and other vegetables, making fertilizer ex- 
periments, and in the hybridizing of fruits. In this last work some 
very promising results have been obtained in crossing the native 
strawberry with cultivated sorts. The Fairbanks station is being 
conducted largely as a demonstration of the feasibility of farming 
as a business. At Rampart much attention is given to the testing 
and breeding of varieties of grains suited to the climate. Varieties 
of wheat, oats, rye, and barley, and of potatoes and many other vege- 
tables have matured every season since the work started at these two 
most northern stations. The Kodiak station is devoted to animal- 
husbandry work, and an effort is being made to develop dairy cattle 
suitable to Alaskan conditions by selection and breeding froin the 
herd of Galloway cattle now at the station. Sheep husbandry is 
also being given attention. 
Successful home and market gardens are found at numerous points 
in southeastern Alaska. — Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Seward; in 
the Cook Inlet region (fig. 2) ; and all along the Yukon and Tanana. 
Some of the more hardy vegetables are grown in favorable localities 
far above the Arctic Circle, on the Chandalar, Koyukuk, and other 
streams, A successful cattle raiser is located on a homestead near 
Juneau ; a homesteader at Circle, on the Yukon, is establishing a 
herd and building silos and barns; and there are good dairies at 
Juneau, Skagway, Fairbanks, and Nome. 
