Amador ledger., 1909-01-22
oUEEREST FARM IN WORLD
A Hot Water Market Garden Guilt
waited Near Arctic Circle.


Alaska, on small tributary of the
Tanana River, only 125 miles south of
the Arctic Circle It is owned and
managed by j. f.. Karshner.
harshner a few years ago was engag-
ed in hunting gold when he came
across something which astouished
him very much. 1t was little stream
of hot water.
He traced the stream to a spring,
which was likewise hot and it pre-
seutly became obvious that quite
considerable area was underlaid by
uch springs.
Promptly deciding that this was a
discovery more profitable than a gold
mine, karshner gave up prospecting,
and obtained quantity of vegetable
seeds of various kinds.
The tenn erature in that region
sometimes falls to 90 degrees below
zero in winter, but natural system
of hot-water heating, free of cost, was
just the thing for truck gardening
near the Arctic Circle, where pota
toes have a market value of 20 cents
a pound and other vegetables bring
prices ia proportion.
The Karshner farm occupies a flat
area with a convenient slant toward
the south. Hot water, oozing out of
the ground, forms three small steams
which empty into the nearby river.
The warm spring extends over a
distance of about mile, and, as the
owner says, the heat in the ground
has to be felt to be believed.'' He
adds: 81 have never seen vegetables
grow as they do here. The place has
climate of its own. Often there is
no frost when it is freezing every
where else.
The hotwater farmer has seventy
hens. He has also six fine pigs. His
crop of potatoes this year will be 100
tons, at 800 bushels to the acre.
tobacco has made great growth
Tomatoes are success. Squashes of
several kinds are grown, some of
them weighing as much as So pounds. |
Karshner gets 81 apiece for his musk
melons, which are particularly juicy. |
This hot-water market garden must
be a wonder in its way, but it is
dOu btful whether its owner deserves
as much credit as belongs to Frank |
ID. Howard, United States commissioner
at Coldfoot, Alaska, sixty miles north |
of theArctic Circle, who in the raising
of potatoes and other vegeta bIes tor
market gets over the difficulty of
climate by starting them in tin cans
in the house. When the weather be-
comes warm enough he transplants |
them to the open.
Mr. Howard smarket garden is the
most successful to be found anywhere
north of the Arctic Circle. He pro:
tects his young cabbages from frost
on cold nights by coyeringsthem with
beer bottles, the bottoms and necks
OF which have been knocked off. In
these Jackets, as he calls them,
they flourish, and by June 10, when |
they have grown sufficiently to fill |
the bottles they are uncovered. In |
the first week of September they are
harvested.
MT Howard grows potatoes and |
celery very successfully. His lettuce
produces an abundant crop of large
and exceedingly fine heads, tender
and sweet.
Last year he sent to the agricultural
station at Sitka, by registered mail,
at a surprisingly early date, box
containing a cucumber.a stalk of rhu-
RIB, Two potatoes and carrot.
These were to show what he could do
in the truck gardening line. Accom-
panying them was a letter which
said, alphabetically:
~ can not send by mail an Spound
head of cabbage or l6-pound turuip."
1t will thus be seen that the bust
ness of market gardening in Alaska.
though conducted under difficulties,
is not unsuccessful. Some OF the
finest vegetables are grown on the
roofs of houses, overlaid for the pur
pose with foot or so of earth.
In Central Florida pineapples are
largely grown nowadays under sheds,
of lattice. These sheds, elevated on
posts at a height of about feet from
the ground, usually, in some In
stances cover as much as ten acres
of land. Their main object is to
protect the growing fruit against