davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

dozen different experiment stations and has raked the world for grasses and plants suited to this part of the United States.
 We were looking at some alfalfa grown from seed imported last year from Siberia when I asked Professor Georgeson to give me his idea of the future of Alaskan farming. He re- piled: M
 There is no doubt but that Alaska will some day support large farming population. l see no reason why the territory should not eventually have a stable population of three millions or more. We are discovering new plants and grains every season. This alfalfa will grow all along the Yukon, and we have made successful experiments with 1t north of that river. I estimate that Alaska has about 100000 square miles that can be used for agricultural pur- poses. That means that it has 64,00O,- 900 acres, an area two and half times that of Ohio or Virginia, that can be turned into farms and ranches.
 "Of this territory about 57,000,000 acres lie in the interior beyond the coast range of mountains. The other 6,000,000 or 100000 acres are in the coast region and on the islands near by Each section will have its own crop based on it's soil and climate Some of the islands will be devoted to grazing and dairying while south eastern Alaska, where we are now. will have gardens from where vegeta- bles will be shipped to Seattle, com manding a higher price than the Puget sound products on account of their su perior quality. Indeed. such shipments are even now being made"
 Do you think that Alaska will ever raise dairy products for the United States market?"
 There is no reason why it should not. The climate of the Aleutian Isl ands is mild. and hardy cattle and sheep can in many seasons run out all winter or be kept over with a small amount of hay and fodder. We are now wintering our cattle on the Island of Kodiak on the equivalent of two tons of hay per head. We do not use hay, but put green grass into the silos The cattle are kept up at night, but that is to protect them from the bears rather than on account of the cold We can raise cattle almost anywhere in the Yukon valley but the trouble there is the long winters when they have to be fed for something like eight months of the year.
 'In the interior Of Alaska the grass grows almost everywhere to the height of ones head" continued Professor Georgeson. T have seen many patches
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

He has almost month to work of his fabbiness in and he may do it. or he may not have to do it. He may whip Moran easily and he may have hard time of it, but I couldn't look at that bout and feel that was viewing a real best-in -the-world, or, if I could. I'd feel bit sorry for a world that couldn't put forth a better looking specimen. I don't know the boxing game well, but I know fat man every time.
 When a crowded subway train was halted for 15 minutes in the tube under East river the other day, a woman fainted. Now, women have faked faints many time in order to enjoy what they seem to deem the great joy of being caught and held in mans arms. But that subway woman really tainted Why? Because on one of those crowded trains there is no more chance to fall down than there is to have dinner served while travelling on one of them. The only way they ever found out that she had tainted. so a passenger told me. was when she refused to try to budge when the man damned against her asked her to get off his fravorite corn and try the one on hin other foot while.
 Well, it's a long Jane that has n yearninG.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

Where will be the farming center of Alaskan"
 There will be many such," said Pro- lessor Georgeson. Farms will spring up about every important mining settle ment. Fairbanks is the largest of the gold camps today and that region has the most and best farmers. Since the government has decided to build the railroad two or three hundred families have located homesteads in the Mata- nuska valley with a view to supplying the demands of the coal mines of that region. There are number of sue cessful farms in the neighborhood Of Seward and many small farms about Juneau, which is another mining center of great importance. There are little farms scattered throughout this part Of the territory and indeed wherever there is a local market you will find farm center. These centers will enlarge and as new settlements are established other farms will be opened up, and Alaska will become a great and populous state.''
 Would you advise Americans to come to Alaska to engage in farming?"
 Yes, if they understand the conditions and know what they are going to find when they Tedcn neTe ana are Teduy lO stay and grow up with the country. I would not advise people to rush in pell- nell and take up homesteads wherever they can be found simply because Un- cle Sam will give them farm for noth- ing The would-be spectators will stand slim chance of making money by rise in land values. There is no land for sale, and Uncle Sam is the sole owner He will not sell his lands, but will give them away only to bona f1de settlers and to those who will keep on the job and aid in the development of the country. The farmers most likely to succeed are the men who know the climate and what crops can be grown. Scandinavians, and especially Norwegians and Swedes and F1nlanders, have been brought up under conditions such as we have here. They expect long winters and short summers they understand the methods of culture necessary. and they are. believe best suited to the country
 .IIow much money should a young man have who wishes to take up homestead? :? ing the land"
 ''The right young man might come to aska and make a success without any money" said Professor Georgeson. But in that case he would have to work for wages for other farmers or in the min ing camps to get sufficient to live on until his farm paid He would have to endure hardships and his path would not be an easy one. On the other hand, if he had thousand dollars or so he could
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

than handsome, though there is not one single line or decoration about its ex- terior that gives us thrill of pleasure such as real beauty always does.
 Take one of these houses out of Man haitian and place it on some of the pret- tier residence streets of smaller city of the south,5 and 1t would look grim and forbidding. just as discordantly un- beautiful as could well be imagined. But here we know that it represents wealth, we know that-in most cases within 1t is palatial, and there are others of similar architecture all along the up- per avenue, and so we say superh!' But even as we say it we also know that the chord within us that responds to beau tvs touch alone has not vibrated, and that we sense no inner harmony.
 Along the drive. from the really pala- tial Schwab residence, at Seventy-second street. all the way to the upper boule- ward above One Hundred and Fifty-sixth street, we gaze admiringly. and in some awe, at the. residences and rows upon rows of tall. unsightly apartment build ings. feeling distinctly the unpleasant effect of their jagged skyline. their snake like in-and-outness of front and general lack of architectural beauty. yet men tally reverential toward them because of the fact that they represent great expen- ditures, impressed by the great num- bers of them, and filled with a kind of aweful admiration for the general big ness of the idea, And yet, our inner beauty chord lies still and silent-it has not been touched and therefore is not vibrant.
 The residence of MT. Schwab is really palatial. and it's lawn Is decidedly att trHctive yet have seen it's equal among the more beautiful country places of the <tnn& h. r. Schwah's appear like unto back yard of one Hogan, who lived in very mar row thoroughfare proudly bearing his name. But this is not meant as an ad-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05
UP AND DOWN BROADWAY--By Allen Griffin Johnson

here and there along Riverside drive, and tions of Manhattan, but even in the heart of beautiful Central park one cannot feel as close to nature as if one were not confronted on all sides by rules and reg ulations laid down by man and not by nature herself. We admire it all, but we do not fold it close to our inner selves, as we cid back home where the trees, the grasses and the flowers of the fields spoke to us in a language that was inti- mate, full of understanding. sympathy and encouragement
 It seems as if the never pausing, never ending rush and display of nervous en- ergy all around us here sucks us, whether we will or no, into the psychic mae strom where we whirl giddily around unable to stop whirling. forced to forget the calmer, more stable things we were once intimate with. and which make for soul boise and the deeper happiness.
 For our once true judgment of beauty is substituted a sensation of awe; awe tor the magnitude of the great melting pot; awe for it's wonderful material un- dertallings and accomplishments. Over coming this in time, we find ourselves &C., cepting deformities for naturalness, ar- tificiality for natural beauty and this holds as regards nature, architecture and the human being.
 As for the last named. I can dispose of that in 8 paragraph: The clever makeup has come to be accepted here with an admiration once given only where the brush of nature had carmined the cheeks. crimsoned the lips and put the lustre in the eyes. It is looked upon as art. or perhaps as the newer naturalness. but 1t Can never be an improvement upon na- ture, and the best it can hope for is to be good imitation of nature at her best. And this is proved true by the fact that only when the makeup is so cleverly done
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

"Tell me something about the soil of Alaska. How does it compare with that of the best parts of the United States?"
 '"The best soil of our middle west, replied Professor Georgeson, .'can be du- doubt whether Alaska has any agricul- tural area equal to that. The country has no prairie lands, and there are no extensive bodies of uniform quality. Still some parts of the country are ex-I cellent for farming. The silt loam of the Tanana valley will compare in pro ductiveness with some of the best soil to be found elsewhere, and we have at the Fairbanks station land that is eXcelled only by the rich prairie soils of the middle west. That land is light loam of a grayish color. It is sandy, but free from gravel and it holds the moisture. It can be easily worked. We have been growing wheat upon it at the rate of 50 bushels to the acre, and we have had average yields of 50 bushels of oats. There are good lands in the Matanuska and Susitna valleys, and, in fact. there are tens of millions of acres that can be made into farms
 The conversation here turned to the grains of Alaska, and I asked Prof. VI cessfully raised during the short sum- mer season. He replied:
 We are now ripening all of the lead ing grains at our interior experiment stations. During 1915 we matured and harvested on our farm at Fairbanks 1200 bushels of grain, comprising wheat, rye, barley and oats. It is true that these were made up of the earliest and hardest varieties, but the development of varieties suitable to the country is one of the tasks of the experiment sta tions. With that in view, we have made number of crosses and have succeeded in producing many promising hybrids. We are raising earlier and more produc- tive baSleys than the best we have been able to mature in more southern lat- tudes, and we have a dwarf spring wheat that is very early. It came from an experiment station in Siberia. It is only a matter of time when we shall get one or more varieties of wheat that will mature in Alaska and be produc- tive enough to make 1t worth cultivat- ing. We are now making many experi- ments as to winter rye and are succeed ing. We are also experimenting with winter wheat and I think we shall even tually produce all the grains for both flour and feed that will be needed by that as freight rates fall it may even pay to export grain to the states. Today all grain is high in the interior of the country. Feed grain brings 800 a ton at Fairbanks and $l04 at Rampant"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

melt in your mouth. The plants have a hardihood not known to our strawberries. They keep on bearing for about two months during the summer, and are still yielding fruit as late as September.
 Among the other experiments going on at the station is the crossing of red and yellow salmonberries with the raspberry The salmonberry is as big as the largest blackberry, but it is red or pale yellow ir color It is delicious to taste, and is used in great quantities all over Alaska. Raspberries also will grow well almost anywhere, and the crossing is successul, although the new fruit partakes more of the flavor of the salmonberry.
 The station is also breeding apple trees that will grow in many parts of the ter rltory, and it is making experiments with cherries, with filberts and other nuts of the harder varieties.
 The most surprising feature of the gar dening is in pansier peoples roses and other beautiful flowers. Among the pan- sies now growing are many as big around as the bottom of a tumbler and some are as black as ink and as soft as silk Flush There are also roses of exquisite Perfume and poppies of the most brilliant
 @. These poppies come from Asia, and they are perennial. They are among the new wonders of Alaska
 went over the experiment farm with Prof. c. c. Georgeson, who, un- der Secretary Houston, has the man. agement and direction of Uncle Sam's agricultural work in Alaska There Is no man better fitted by ability, and experience for the position. met him In Japan 2S years ago, when I was making my first newspaper trip around the world. MT Georgeson was then a professor in the Imperial College Of Agriculture at Tokio. and was intro ducing modern farming into the land Of Japan. Born in Denmark he had been trained in farming on some of the large estates of that country and had then gone to the United States, where he was professor in the Texas State College of Agriculture. He had also been one of the editors of the Rural New Yorker. After leaving Japan he was sent by our government to inves- tigate the dairy industry of Denmark, and later-in 1898-was ordered to go to Sitka and establish experiment sta tions in various parts of Alaska, with a view to the development of the ter ritory.
 For the IS years since then Professor Georgeson has been in charge of Un- cie Sams farming interests fin Alaska. He has travelled all over the terri tory, studying it's soil, climat, plant life and farming possibilities. He has been the chief manager of half
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

within itself, and one can find almost any kind of atmosphere desired, from that of the lower East Side, where the melt ing pot is, perhaps, busiest with it's melt ing to that of the neighborhood of Spuy- ten Duyvil, where, on certain summer days one may look into the calm eyes of kind faced cows standing in silvery streams of running water" as the late Billy Baxter" once remarked.
 Down south many of you remember lit- tie Mitzi (once MizzD Hajos. She was at the head of the Spring Maid com pany. touring that section once, but as a matter of fact Miss Mitzi did not become real Broadway satellite until this week, when she made her first appearance as "a real star in Pom Pom.'' But, if you have admired her, you are safe for the little Hungarian took Broadway off it's blase boots. She was spoken of as the best part of good show, and she can now do what she pleases with alba via it is at her dainty feet, fguratively and literally.
 The best skating-opcn air-of tic sea son has just been crowding Van Cort- landt, Prospect and Central park lakes. A snow fell. melted, smoothed off al! the rough places on the ice and recently we have had ice surfaces smooth as glass. Record throngs have been enjoying the sport. which is at least 10 times as popu- lar here this winter as it has ever been before.
 Just had good squint at Jess Willard walking around the big reservoir over in Central park this morning. Never claimed to be boxing expert, and wouldn't care to take on the big boy myself. but just for your edification. 1t is unquestionably true that Jess is fat man. His wind may be fine. but, he was puffing like a young steam engine when he passed me.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

as tall as a man upon horseback. A few years ago I visited Holy Cross mission on the Lower Yukon. The mis- sion station owned a small herd of cattle, which it had fn pasture. Ad- grass that had been reserved for hay I asked permi ssion to turn the cattle into this tract that might photograph them. They were driven in, but I could not make the picture. The ami malls were lost in the grass, which lowered two or three feet above their heads. Such grass is found in south western Alaska, and everywhere on the moist grounds throughout the in terior. It makes valuable hay if it is cut early. but if left to ripen it be- comes tough and woody.
 -"Ar Fairbanks such hay now brings $50 and upward a ton, while imported alfalfa sells for $125 a ton. I remem- Der that I got as much as $240 a ton for grain hay when we had an experiment station on the Copper river near Cor dova and that we often sold hay there for as high as 5 cents a pound. This was before the people had started farming. After that they sent in ob- jections to the agricultural depart ment at Washington, saying that the experiment station ought not to com- pete in the markets. The matter was brought before Secretary Wilson. He replied that $240 a ton was too high for hay, and ordered us to keep on raising 1t and selling it until the price went down to $75 ton. He said that he thought $75 a ton was enough for hay anywhere"
 !. "How about your experiments with alfalfa ?' s44
 ."rhe Alaska stations have been work ing for several years on that problem, the most of our experiments having been Yukon. We have brought in seed from many parts of the earth, but so far have found only one species that is absolutely hardy. This is a yellow lowered alfalfa indigenous to Siberia, from where the seed came through out department of agriculture. It has smaller leaves than the common alfalfa, and the stems are more slender. The flowers are yellow instead of purple, and it has this fault that the pods split open and shatter much of the seed in the handling. That alfalfa has never been winter killed at the Rampant station. and we have made several crosses between it and other va rieties which are nearly as hardy. We need the alfalfa. not only as feed but as ntrogenous fertilizer for the soil. This alfalfa fills the requirements, and it is merely a question of time when we vii! have enough seed to meet. the de- mands of the country.'
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05
1W YORK, March 4.-(Special.) Sometimes one wonders if New
 York city does not possess a marked tendency toward the

2) marked tendency toward the
 perversion of ones ability to Judge of beauty--both natural and arch ltecturaL Conditions here are such as actually to warp. sI believe. judgment of this quality.
 The normal man or woman loves. and Is now and then in need of. the open n,aces, the real nature-e environment af- torded by the country, by small village life, and even by the vast majority of ess densely populated. less uncomforta- Ay congested cities. Manhattan offers lothing of the kind. except within its parks, and, perhaps at it's extreme north Mn end, in the neighborhood of Spuyten Duyvil. Remember I am referring to Manhattan. and not to the Bronx. but liter all, one who lives in the latter bor- ugh is here considered hardly more than lalf New Yorker, anyhow.
 One can feel this perversion of judg- ment taking place soon after he begins his Ife upon this island. but is not able to recognize it as such. s l. had been here put month or two when asked one of ny friends, man who formerly lived in he south, if he did not miss the open paces occasionally and feel cramped. or wen almost suffocated.
 No" he replied. II used to feel that way. but I never think about 1t now.' 1t almost shocked me, but am now in he condition in which I found him-al- nost.. Perhaps the love of the open paces, and of nature does not die in us. Int merely lies dormant, waiting for an-
 her sight of the old loved scenes to Awaken it, and make it thrill us anew.
 Of course, one may find the beauties t nature in Central park. touches of them
The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05

buy a team of horses or yoke of oxen and some farm tools. He could put up modest house and furnish it.
 He might still have to work out oc- casionally, but he could soon clear in cattle, sheep and poultry to make life on the farm practicable. Such a man should locate on land that Is al ready surveyed by the government. and he should investigate the cost of im- plements, furniture and freight before starting. He will find the freight rates high. The average price of carrying goods from Puget Sound to Fairbanks is about s6O a ton. If the man could have s4ooo or s5ooo it would be still bet ter. but with that amount of money he could make a fair start almost any where in the states.'
 There is one thing that eirou1d be Rsu understood, continued Professor George son. and that is that the settler must have enough muscle and skill to work his own farm, and should expect to dc the most of the work himsef If he starts out paying wages for clearing land he will soon be bankrupt. The wages of Alaska are governed by those in the mines. and until recently the mine own CTS have been paying as high as $7.5o day without board I remember that when I started the station at Fairbanks I want ed labor. I went into a saloon where score of loafers were standing about the bar I asked all who wanted to work to come outside. A half dozen re- spondeI. coming out wiping the froth from their lips. They asked me what would pay. I replied 8 a day and board. They laughed at me and said they could not work for such wages as that. I had to pay $7.50 day at the station there until the present year, when the wages fell to l5 cents an hour or s6 for an eight-hour day. At the former rate of wages it cost us on the average about $125 an acre to clear the land"