The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-15
ALAskA's FARMING LANDS.
The Territory Could support a Pop
uIation of Many Millions.

A good deal of interesting informa-
ton concerning Alaska, its climate, its
lands. its natural resources and its in
dustries, is contained in report re-
GENTLY submitted to the House of Re-
representatives. from the Committee on
| Agriculture The climate of many OF
the regions there is less severe than
might be inferred from the latitude IN
which they lie. In Europe, between
| the parallels of latitude in which Alas
ka hes, there is a population OF zV w.
| OOO There are vast stretches OF Alas
kan territory in which the cllmatlc
conditions are much more favoraple
than would be supposed by those VINO
take account merely of their geograpn-
| ical situation.
| In Alaska there are extensive areas
of land both in the south and in the
north that are suitable for agriculture;
! and there is a bill before Congress for
| the establishment of agricultural eX-
pertinent stations within these areas.
In a letter about Alaska recently writ
ten for the information of Congress by
Major John w. Powell, who has just
resigned the Office of director of the
United States geological survey. there
are some interesting statements in sup
port of others previously made in Off
| cial reports. Major Powell gives the
area of tillable land in southeastern
Alaska. as 1000 square miles. a tract
larger than the state Of Rhode Isl
and; and he makes an estimate that
along the shores of Cook inlet, the pen
insulaf and adjacent islands, including
the Aleutian isles. there are 5000 addi-
tional square miles capable of success
full cultivation. Apart from the state
ments made in Major PowelFs letter
/ there is reason to believe that upon q
/ large section OF the mainland south Of
Yukon river, the harder grains and
vegetables can be raised to advantage.
| In the upper regions OF the country,
also. there are arabic tracts of land;
and the authority OF Professor Daw-
son. of the Canadian geological survey,
| is given for the statement that in the
angle formed by the eastern boundary
! of northern 1Easka and the northern
| boundary of British Columbia. a pOpu-
lation of 100000 could be sustained by
agriculture alone. But before the lands
of Alaska can be made attractive for
settlers it is necessary that Congress
enact number of laws additional TO
those already provided for its govern
ment, and necessary also that a good
! deal more money be appropriated for
its service than the treasury is likely
/ to be able to spare for a long time to
come. We have owned Alaska for
! over a quarter Of a century. and yet
/ not until within about three years
could even titles to land be procured
anywhere in its area of $4,000 square
miles. The land office has taken in but
/ a paltry amount of purchase mpney
{ since the land operations were begun
under the law of 1891.
From the mining regions Of Alaska
| there have been a number of encourag-
! ing reports, though the amount of
prospecting has been very limited on
account of the difficulty of explora-
ton, the distractions to travel, the
| lack of means of inward transportation
and the no-existence of highways. The
/ editor of the Alaska Herald says that
( several hundred miners are now at
work in the gold-bearing districts up
/ the Yukon, and that he knows of some
among them who have Cleaned up
from $4,000 to $4,000 or $4,000; but it
must be acknowledged that up to this
time the records of Encouragement are