Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1914-08-24

i lowed 10 the tduNtfitS. FROM tnt
tanks the fish are carried up into thu
factory by an endless chain arrange
ment TO machinery which takes OF
the heads and removes the entrails
then through tank OF water. where
alone they are touched by hand e
make sure they have been thoroughly
cleaned. Then they go TO other ma.
lchinery. which cuts them into slices
which are packed. still by machinery
into cans. and the cans are hermeti-
cally sealed by a piNch from a ma
chine. no solder being used. The
flied cans are than run through heat
ed chambers pntil the fish is thor
oughly cooked. At one place ! saw
1.-THE process OF feeding the fish into
the endless chain from the flatboat
tanks. Two men stood by the tank,
each having a short pole with a met
al spike slightly bent at the end. and
with this. pitched the salmon, one al
a time usually on the runway They
worked with will and yet barely kept
the runway supplied, while the ma
chinery used took care OF the fish as
fast as the runway delivered them.
wonderfully great as the supply OF
salmon In these waters Is, ii seems
I UtUb Unit ullifrr the government
limits the amount to be taken, the in
dustry will In few years suffer seri-
Gus harm. There IL little other en-
ployment for the Indians They for
mery cut and sold wood from gov
eminent land when not NJ work in the
short fishing season. But that. II is
said, has been stopped by the for
estry regulations. The lumber, too,
he. oh Ia s.s4I 10
Alaska lumber Is poor. fit only for
special low-grade purposes, but IL
seems not improbable that the small
growth so prevalent along the shores
will be utilized for paper pulps i'm
time. The mining business as | have
described il, at Treadwell may be in
its infancy, as there are. IL is claimed.
mountains of low-grade ore there II
has been found, however. especially
rash to make predictions on Alaska.
From the days Of those who called it
Stewards Folly" until now. 1t has
J brought the prophets tn derision. The
story Is perhaps old enough to be new,
that Secretary Seward really paid sew
en- millions to Russia for her friendly
offices of sending her war fleet TO our
waters at the time when England was
Ilil-uiCifoEtu tO0dA0 Al' 4NRttn Att isiE
I the civil war, and that Alaska. assum-
ed to be worthless, was merely as a
cover for the payment.
Scant Agriculture.
Coming now TO the subject of agri-
culture for Alaska | must say that ex-
cept In a limited way 1 cannot regard
Il very hopefully. There is a govern
ment agricultural station at Sitka,
v here Surprisingly large and luscious
Strawberries were ripening In abund-
ance. They were Of rather a light
color. did not look ripe, but were, and
were unusually sweet The usual gar
den vegetables and potatoes looked
well and we were told they were
grown successfully. But II had cost
some hundreds Of dollars per acre to
tit the land for cultivation, and II is
necessary still TO use lime on 1t to cor
rect its "sourness Where there il
thicket II is a costly process to clear
out the tangle of roots and much of
the land needs undertaking, also
costly. In the interior there is grass
for grazing in some localities, but the
season is very short and the grass
worthless after freezing. Ii would be
necessary to provide food for the cat
tie from elsewhere and il does not
seem possible we shall ever be able
to look to Alaska for beef or mutton.
and unless the cereals can be Bur-
banked to tit the climate they cannot
he ripened there But vegetables,
berries. etc, will undoubtedly be
grown where there is a market for
them. Blueberries, by the way, grow
wild in profusion about Sitka and
doubtless elsewhere in the vast terri
tory In the round trip of about 1900
miles from Seattle, one gets almost a
surfeit of beautiful scenery. especially
as IT is of similar character through
out. STILL II is diversified by chang
ing light and shade, by the winding
course. the stops at the different viii
lagos, the railroad trip at Skagway
and by views of glaciers, of which we
must have seen nearly or quite doz-
en- on the trip. Most of them were
remote, high up In the mountains, and
dead" but the Taku glacier comes
to the water with frontage of mile
or more as a moving stream of ice
whose upward winding course among
the mountains toward the perpetual
snow was clearly visible from our
steamer which ran up among the
floating, beautifully colored ice blocks
miniature ice-bergs near the foot of
the glacier magnificent spectacle
ii all madel The Patterson glacier,
near the Lynn canal, so-called, re-
sembled the Taku in appearance. but
seemed 10 be larger, but we did not
go close to IT, There is a glacier far
north on the Alaskan coast which has
a frontage. it is said, OF one hundred
and fifty miles
Government Railroad.
The engineers are at work on the
ground for the railroad which the ma
ton is 10 construct Its location has
not been determined, but it will be
further north than any point we
reached, and It is expected, will, be-
side reaching some of the principal
coal deposits now known, penetrate TO
the interior, which is supposed has
agricultural possibilities, but which. as
| have said, | should hesitate to class
as probabilities II is to be hoped,
and perhaps expected, that the gov
eminent will proceed with caution on
a matter so novel TO it. Alaska has
a government like that New Mexico
had as a territory. Until recently
there we're only executive and judi
cial departments, but there is now a
legislative assembly which has had, |
think, but one session. 1t is said that
the members, in their attempt at Leg
islation, were like sheep without Il
shepherd. as there was not q lawyer
among them. The fight over the
saloon is already on. II Is, of course,