The National tribune., 1902-03-27

Department Of Agriculture in the Summer
of 1900. Winter rye, seeded there in Aug
ust of that year, lived through the Win
ter perfectly under n good covering OF
snow. Although the temperature fell to
20 degrees below zero, it came out in the
Spring in perfect condition. and matured
grain by the first OF August, 1901. Bar
ley seeded in May of the latter year was
ripe by the middle OF August. At the
headquarters station at Sitka / have fer
three years past grown as fine Spring
wheat as one would wish to see samples
of it may be seen at the Department of
Agriculture, and barley and oats have
been grown there successfully for four
years. These grains have likewise been
grown successfully at the experiment sta
ton at Kenai, on the kenai Peninsula.
This station is situated in a region where
there are thousands Of square miles of
land available for farming and grazing.
Capt. w. X. AbercrOmbie, who construct
ed the tranS-AlaSkan military road at my
request seeded the past Summer small
quantities of wheat, barley and oats at
Copper Center, in the Copper River Val
ley. and he writes me that they all ma
tured. Ripe oats We're seen last Septem-
bcr by Mr.. Isaac Jones. an employee OF
the Department of Agriculture, on n trib-
utary to the Forty-mile, in about LATITUDE
81. Two Wisconsin men, McssrS. II. G.
-Nl''l'il anu II. 'lii Sltll it'A ~ III III
at Skagway two years ago. In Septem-
bcr of last year | saw considerable fields
of oats, potatoes and cabbage grown by
them. On Admiralty Island, near Kills
moo, q man named Thomas Baker has
been growing vegetables and grains for
years with noted success. Small patches
of grain have been matured at Kadiak, at
Afognak, ct the Morayian Mission on the
Kuskokwin River, and at many other
places. At Fort Selkirk an American
named Frank Bach, and at Dawson two
brothers named Morgan, also Americans,
have secured from the Canadian Govern
ment tracts of upward of 100 acres of
land each, which they are farming sue
cessfully.
STOCK-RAISING.
Cattle are kept at every considerable
settlement in Alaska, except perhaps at
Nome. They all do well. The treeless
region to the westward of Sitka is es-
pecially well suited to cattle and all kinds
of live stock. The Alaska Commercial
Company has kept cattle, sheep and An
CORA goats at Kodiak for many years, and
they required but little feed and shelter,
except in an occasional storm during Win
ter. The data on these experiments were
published in the report to Congress ON the
Alaska Investigations for 1899. The ma
tives at Kenai and Ninilchik, on Cook
lHitl, nave htpt Ndtlit lbI udIl century
or more. AT the latter place they have
upward of 80 head. But few breeding
cattle have as yet found their way into
! the interior, but horses are quite numer-
Gus there. In this connection il is of in
terest to note that in spite of the extreme
ly cold Winters in the interior, there are
many instances on record in which horses
abandoned by prospectOrs in the Fall have
survived the Winters and come out in the
{ Snrnn ~ fair condition Mr. MaplE I
Bray, an American miner, told me last
| Summer that he used five mules in his
| mining operations on one of the tributar-
! les of the Tanana. He abandoned them
when he went out in the Fall, it beiA!
too expensive to buy feed for them in
Dawson, where he wintered. When he
returned to the diggings the following
April he found four of them alive and
we'll; the fifth had been killed by the In
dians. In the Fall of 1899 Mr.. Jack Dal
| ton turned loose 40 head of pack-horses
he had used in carrying provisions over
the Dalton trail. and in the Spring OF
1900 he found 43 of them alive and wei
and in fair condition.
AGRICULTURAL LANDS.
There are extensive areas of grass lanC
in many parts of the interior Mr.. Isaac
Jones, already referred to. made a recon,
naissance last Summer between Eagle, on
| the Yukon, and Naldes, on Prince William
| Sound. The distance between these two
points as the trail runs is about 4:}5 miles
! He examined some 10 miles on either side
of the trail, thus covering an area OF
80 miles wide by 435 miles long
Within the boundaries of this strir
| he estimates that he saw 100000 acres
of pasture and farming land. In the re
! gion occupied by the Kechumstuk Indians
north of the Tanana, and especially along
the south fork of the FoTty-mile, he re
ports that he crossed a meadow with the
| grass waist high for distance of eight
miles. He also learned of horses which
| had run at large for two years in this re,
giOn. The Kechumstuk Indians have
! given n new name to cattle. They cal
them mckinley moose" and Americans
were known to them as Mckinley men,
The chief of the village has secured al
American flag, which he hoisted on a tail
pole whenever he learned that white mer
were in his territory. There is some hopC
for the civilization of a tribe which cher
| ishes such sentiments. Mr. JOnes'S de
scription of the country is highly interest
ing. 1t forms part of my report now be
| fore Congress.
WHAT IT MEANS.
The development of agriculture in Alas
! ka means the settlement and development
| of the Territory. 1t means the making OF
| homes, n permanent population, the rapid
| development of the mineral resources, the
creation of wealth. the building of Il State
II, on the other hand, no foodstuffs cal
be produced in Alaska, large population
| is impossible, and it could never become
a State. We cannot imagine the possibility