Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1913-08-02
BERRIES IN ALASKA
Strawberry Growing Is Possible
in the Far North.
Department Of Agriculture Finds Cold
Resisting Plant Susceptible to Cub
tivatIon-The "Tin Cow" No
Longer a Luxury.

Washington. - Nativegrow straw
berries and cream in Alaska would
have sounded like a comic supplement
joke a few years ago. But they are
now actualities, according to the ex-
pertinent station report of the depart
ment Of agriculture. OF course, the
resident millionaires of the Klondike
could afford to import strawberries
from Indo-China II they wanted to do
so, but they prefer to grow them local
ly, and II the present prospects hold
out they are likely to become a reg
ular market commodity and within
reach of the common mine laborer
who makes only SIS or $40 day.
The department of agriculture was
interested in Alaska fruit culture for
a long time, and explorers brought
cold-resistant plants from all quarters.
Many of them did well, and the de
partment is now experimenting there
with a black currant that will live out
of doors at a temperature of SIS.
But the residents could not find a
strawberry that would stand the eli
mate and bear fruit inside the narrow
time limit allowed by an Alaskan sum.
mer.
Finally the plant breeders took hold
of the problem. The plant breeder is
one Of the latest developments of sci
ence. He is the wizard of the new
horticulture They found a little ma.
tive member of the strawberry family
down on the coast near Sitka. The
fruit was about as eatable as a mock
orange, but it was a native and in
ured to the climate. This was crossed
with a good fruit-bearing plant from
the states, and the result has devel
oped as a cold-resisting plant that
bears a better fruit than either of its
parents. The experiment station has
been growing them and next year
they will be generally put out in the
local gardens.
AS for cream, that is easy. The
day has passed when Alaska had to
depend on the "tin cow and get its
milk from the condensing factories.
The department started several years
ago with a small herd of the little
shaggy, black Galloway cattle and
found they took kindly to the soil and
climate of Kodiak Island. To be sure,
the big brown Kodiak bears that are
big as elephants ate a few, and last
year there was a volcano over on the
mainland sixty-two miles away that
sifted ashes down on the pastures and
starved a few more to death. But the
cattle did well in spite of handicaps
and the department now is selecting
some of the best mixers and build
ing up a regular dairy herd.
Butter from the native cows has
sold at times in Alaska cheaper than
it was doing on the same date in
Washington. So the cream for the
native strawberries is assured. 1t is
true that the department has not yet
found a sugar cane that will grow
inside the arctic circle, and the Alas
kans still have to import their sugar,
but If the sugar beet man is to be
trusted, he thinks in time he can de-
velop a sugar beet that will grow on
the Yukon. If that 10 the case, Alaska
will feel so Independent of the rest
of the country that the chances are
she will raise a kick in congress for
an autonomous form Of government.