Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-10-30
ARCTIC TRUCK FARMERS
HOT WATER MARKET GARDENS
SUCCESSFUL IN ALASKA.
Grow Potatoes and All Kinds of Tender
Vegetables, Including Celery,
Easily.

What is perhaps the most remarkable
farm in the world is located in Alaska,
on a small tributary of the Tanana river,
only 125 miles south of the Arctic circle.
1t is owned and manager by j. t. Harsh
ner
karshner a few years ago was en-
gagged in hunting gold when he came
across something which astonished him
very much. 1t was a little stream of hot
water.
He traced the stream to a spring,
which was likewise hot, and it presently
became obvious that quite a considerable
area was underlaid by such springs.
Promptly deciding that this was dis
covery more profitable than a gold mine
harshner gave up prospecting, obtained
a quantity of vegetable seeds of various
kinds, and, according to Suburban Life,
started III to raise garden truck.
The temperature in that region some
times falls to 50 degrees below zero III
winter, but a natural system of hot
water heating. free of cost. was just the
thing for truck gardening near the Arctic
circle, where potatoes have Il mar ket
value of % cents Il pound and other
vegetables bring prices in proportion.
The harshner farm occupies Hat area
with a convenient slant toward the south
Hot water, oozing out of the ground
forms three small streams which empty
into the nearby river
,, The warm spring extends over a dis
lance of about a mile, and, as the owner
says, THE heat in the ground has to be
felt to be believed" He adds: Il have
never seen vegetables grow as they do
here. The place has a climate of its
own. Often there is no frost when it IS
freezing everywhere else
The hot water farmer has seventy hens:
He has also six fine pigs. His crop OF
potatoes this year will be 100 tons, at
$50 bushels to the acre. Tobacco has
made great growth. Tomatoes are a
success. Squashes of several kinds are
grown, some of them weighing as much
as 80 pounds. Karshner gets 81 apiece
for his muskmelons, which are particu-
larly juicy.
This hot water market garden must
be wonder i'll its way, but it is doubt
full whether it's owner deserves as much
credit as belongs to Frank d. Howard,
United States commissioner at GOldfoot
Alaska, sixty miles north of the Arctic
circle. who in the raising of potatoes
over the difficulty of the climate by start
ing them in tin cans in the house. When
the weather becomes warm enough he
tranSplants them to the open.
Mr.. Towards market garden is the
most successful to be found anywhere
north of the Arctic circle. He protects
his young cabbages from frost on cold
nights by covering them with beer bot
ties, the bottoms and necks of which
have been knocked off. In these Jack
ets," as he calls them, they flourish and
by June 10, when they have grown suf-
ficiently to fill the bottles they are I'M
covered. In the first week of Septem-
Der they are harvested.
Mr.. Howard grows potatoes and celery
very successfully. His lettuce produces
an abundant crop of large and exceed
ingly fine heads, tender and sweet.
Last year he sent to the agricultural
station at Sitka by registered mail at
surprisingly early date a box containing
cucumber, a stalk of rhubarb, two po-
tatoes and a carrot. These were to
show what he could do in the truck
gardening line. Accompanying them was
letter which said apologetically:
Il can't send by mail an S-pound head
of cabbage or 16-pound turnip."
1t will thus be seen that the business
of market gardening in Alaska, though
conducted under difficulties, is not I'M
successful. Some of the finest vegetables
are grown on the roofs of houses, over
laid for the purpose with foot or so OF
earth.
largely grown nowadays under sheds of
lattice These sheds, elevated on posts
at height of about Z feet from the
ground usually, in some instances cover
as much as ten acres of land. Their
main object is to protect the growing
fruit against frost, though it is claimed
that pineapples raised under them are
more delicate in texture and of superior
flavor.
In Hawaii there is a mountain over
$4,000 feet high, along whose side there
gathers every morning cloud bank
formed by the meeting Of air currents of
different temperatures. This bank re-
mains until late in the afternoon and
affords a shade which has been made use
of in the growing of tobacco.
The same idea has been utilized in
this country and in Porto Rico, hundreds
of acres of tobacco being grown under
cheesecloth stretched over frames sup
ported by poles.
In market gardens near Boston melons
are grown in sings so that they will
ripen evenly. Muskmelons are grown on
arbors. each fruit being supported by
q piece of board about a foot square on
which it is turned every day or two.
Strawberries are grown in pots in green
houses. the clusters of fruit being sup
ported by wires, SO that they will not
touch the earth.