The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1901-11-28
AGRICULTURE IN ALASKA.
interesting Account Of the Gov.
eminent Experimental Work
in That Territory.


Professor G. G. Georgeson, the special
agent of the agricultural department,
who for the past three years has had
charge of the investigations and expert
ments of the agricultural department in
Alaska, the time is not distant when
that territory viii support a very consid-
cradle agricultural population.
Professor Georgeson came down from
Sitka on the Senator and spent day in
Seattle and two days in Portland before
starting for the national capital, where
he will spend portion of the winter in
the work of preparing his annual report
of his work.
Professor Georgeson is enthusiastic in
his work and in the immense possible
ties which it foretells for the territory
He is assured that with the proper legis-
lation and development the territory can
be made to sustain in comparative
luxury an agricultural population of
upwards of 5000, 600. This estimate was
made by him in his report a year ago
and has been more than borne out by
the magnificent success of the expert
ments and investigations during the
present season. Professor Georgeson
declares that there are millions of acres
of land in Alaska which will produce
the harder grains and vegetables, and
millions of acres in addition which are
now and will probably always continue
to be excellent grazing lands with meal
culable possibilities in the production of
live stock and dairy produce.
His annual report this year will tell OF
winter rye sown in August, 1900, at
Rampant station north of the sixty-first
parallel enduring the winter in perfect
condition, coming through in the spring
green and healthy and ripening by
crop. 1t will tell of barley sown at the
same place last spring ripening by the
18th of August and standing four feet high
with large heads well filled with excel
lent grain. 1t will tell of wheat and
oats at the same station growing rapidly
and maturing in excellent condition
sufficiently early in the season to avoid
all danger from the earlier frosts. 1t
will tell of wheat successfully produced
at the Sitka station three years in sue
cession without suggestion of failure
or doubt of the same thing being capable
of repitition' each year. 1t will tell of
cattle and sheep which have wintered
out on the islands in the vicinity of
Kadiak for years without shelter or feed.
1t will tell of horses turned loose by the
miners along the Valdes- Eagle trail and
along the Yukon in the fall and not only
coming through the winter in good
condition but soon after the coming of
spring showing up fat and sleek,
demonstrating that horses can be raised
in that region practically without feed
the year round.
All these and many more apparently
improbable things will find place,
together with ample verifcatiOn in the
report which Professor Georgeson is now
on his way to Washington to prepare.
OF his seasons work Professor George
soa said:
Experimental Farm Work.
"The results of the experiments and
investigations grow more and more won
derful as the work progresses. When l
first went to Alaska went there with
the same idea that is prevalent through
out the United States, that it was but a
vast barren wilderness and can never be
expected to become anything else. But
the longer remain there the more be-
come convinced that the territory has
great agricultural possibilities and is
capable with proper development of sus-
tanning vast agricultural population.
Late this summer went over the
trail from Eagle City to Valdez and on
that trip / saw strip of country thirty
miles in width and 435 miles long prac-
tically all of which is now excellent graz
ing land and from One-third to one-half
OF which can with small expenditure of
labor be broken up and made to produce
excellent grain crops. This is but one
strip across the territory. There is no
reason to suppose that vast section of
the country in addition to this will not
upon investigation be found to be equally
valuable.
"The Alaska Commercial Company
has for years raised cattle and sheep near
Kadiak and near Unalaska without feed
ing. them thing in the winter. The
sheep have increased at the rate Of about
go per cent annually and the flock shears
about five pounds of wool annually per
head. This has been done for the past
sixteen years. There can be no question
but what it can be repeated on scores of
the islands in that region. There is but
little timber or underground there and
practically the entire country is covered
with 2 heavy growth of nutritious
grasses. ~
Need Of Appropriations.
There is urgent need of congress maxi
ing appropriations for the survey of
Alaska and the extention to the territory
of the homestead laws in sufficiently
liberal form to encourage the settlement
OF the country. When this is done the
country is then ready to be admitted to
the union as state. Already the devel-
opment of Alaska is doing vast deal
for Seattle and the entire Northwest, and
Seattle and the Northwest and the papers
published here can do q vast deal for the
development of Alaska by calling atten-
ton to its possibilities and spreading the
information Of the opportunities to be
found there
Cleveland Had Chill.
Trenton, N. j., Nov. 2S.-Reports
come from PrincetOn. N. T.. that or-