The Ketchikan miner., 1908-08-22
IS IT A FAKE?

In the current number of the Satur- day Evening Post there appears, un-
 der the caption of "A Miracle In Wheat," an illustrated article,
 credited to Oscar G. Day, which is calculated to make the Alaska readers of that widely circulated publication open their eyes wide with surprise
 and astonishment for though it is
 commonly said that photographs can not lie, they cannot but conclude that the camera in this case of the Post illustrations must have been focused upon objects other than those found
 in or having their origin in Alaska.
 This same article, purEorting to be by
 the same author, was submitted to
 The Miner for publication several
 weeks ago, but was consigned to the
 waste basket for the reason that the editor was unable to make up his mind
 whether the story, as related, was
 most remarkable for the very evident ignorance of the writer, or his men, dacity. The story in brief, begins
 with the statement that "when the
 United States paid eighty millions for
 the territory of Alaska it was to the fur the purchasers looked for return on the investment" and that it was
 not until 1903 that Abraham Adams, an ''aged farmer," came to this country in search for gold and not finding it turned his attention to in- vestigating the possibilities for farm ing and grazing and ring him. self for report to the farmers of his community. As the story goes, he drifted along the coast of eastern Alaska for many miles, when one day he chanced upon little patch of wheat growing in nook, sheltered from the winds, which was just ripening, and in which he found a single head which was almost intact and four inches long. This he care- fully packed away and took with him to his home at Julietta, Idaho. where he planted it in the fall of 1904, and from which he grew seven pounds of the finest looking wheat ''mortal had ever seen." These seven pounds he planted in the spring of 1906 and from them harvested 1,545 pounds, equiva- lent to more than 222 bushels to the acre. Some of this wheat he sub- mitted to the state experimental sta tion chemist who reported that the grain would grade No. l, and take rank with the best grade of blue stem wheat for flour. All summed up, Mir. Day concludes that this newly found Alaska wheat will withstand frost withstand hail, if not too heavy; it will grow wheat from fall sowing, it will yield up to 222::bushels to the acre and vii! grade up to No. l hard.
 Now. if the Post will carefully an- alyze the statements made by its con- tributor Day, taking into considera- tion first and foremost that he is more than seventy millions wide of the mark in his statement of the amount paid by the government for Alaska that very few instances of wheat ma turing in southeastern Alaska have ever been known and none at all di- rectly on the coast, and that Alaska has agricultural experiment stations of it's own. with competent and ex- perienced official in charge and who may be depended upon to fully report all investigations respecting the agri- possibilities of the territory, it may be able to definitely conclude whether or not it has been made victim for the free advertising of scheme little less reprehensible than that of gold mining fake intended to separate the farmers of the states from some Of their hard earned dol- lars.