Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-01-21
ALASKA THAW FARMING.
Nature Operates a Subirrigation Sys-
tenn in Tanana Valley.


Imagine a great bowl of ice 800
miles long and 80 miles wide. Sprinkle
it with layer of dirt Light it with
sun that beats down with tropic
intensity % of the "a hours of the
day. Give it the climate Of arid
Arizona, with it's 10 inches Of rainfall
every year.
Now you have fair picture of the
Tanana Valley, located almost in the
geographical center Of Alaska, whose
farms surpass in productivity and
wealth of yield the best Dakotas or
the cream of the Canadian Northwest
prairies, to which thousands of our
Middle West farmers annually mi
CRATE.
Barred from the softening influence
of the warm Japan current by range
of high and precipitous mountains.
which includes such giants as Mt. st.
Elias and Mt. Mckinley latitude 20
500 feet), the Hottest on the American
continent, this valley is only made
endurable for plant life by the fact
that the whole region, except the sur
face, is frozen. ~
The moisture arising from the
Japanese current in the form of clouds
settles against these mountains and Is
precipitated as snow, forming the tre-
mendous glaciers in the southern por-
ton of Alaska. The air Is then freed
of it's moisture and comes dry into the
Ianana Valley. The valley has no
more moisture, no more rainfall than
Arizona. The Tanana Valley would
be an arid desert were It not for the
fact that it is frozen from surface to
bedrock, and every drop of water and
every snowflake which falls In that
country is conserved. 1t sinks into
the ground and is frozen there. II is
maintained in cold storage.
When the warm spring sun touches
the ground and the plowman turns up
the clods it begins thawing. Then
the Fairbanks farmers plant their
gardens, and as the moisture is needed
1t comes from below. The thawing
continues all summer.
The Tanana people have a subirri-
cation system which nature operates
for them that beats any Irrigation or
reclamation system in any of the
Western states and which does not
now and never will cost a cent to
maintain.
The clearing of farm lands about
Fairbanks is going on rapidly. Last
year the area under cultivation was
nearly double all that which had been
cleared and cultivated in previous
ears. The yield of those crops is a
matter of amazement and surprise to
the producers themselves, because
mere, as elsewhere, it had been sup
posed that he lands were worthless
Tor farming purposes.
The United States experimental
farm is located at Fairbanks. There
are about 80 acres under cultivation
he report of the 1912 crop shows Red
lie wheat yielding so bushels 70 the
ere from the soil under natural con-
IItlon there. Romanof, spring wheat
painted in 1912, and harvested abour
september l, shows a produc lion of 60
ousheis to the acre.
These wonderful results can b. d.
Fectly traced TO the fact that during
i ne whole of the growing season there
- no darkness. II is all daylight.
rom May TO the beginning OF Sen
Jemeer one can read a newspaper ont
OF doors at midnight
The quality is another source OF
surprise 10 the uuinitiated Veeeta-
pies, such as cabbage, turnps. toma
toes, radishes, celery ana lettuce. are
astiy superior to those grown In the
States,-Technical World.