Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-07-09
'DhE PATCH OF POTATOES
BRINGS OWNER $4,000
Does in Wonderful Yukon
Farming Land.
MAKES GOOD IN KIoND1KE
Becomes Poultry King, With Eggs
at 81 Apiece and Chickens Mt $50
n Dozen-Cows and Pigs Bring
Marvellous Prices.
By FRANK G. CARPENTER.

DAWSON. ALASKA, July s.
This IS the story of Chicken Billy and
his S10,ooo-potato patch. It is the
story of a young American who be-
came h poultry king of the Klon-
dixie. and then went into farming with
such success that he has one field of
potatoes that will bring in $4,000 this
fall. That Is u sample of what farm
ing can do on the banks OF tho Yukon,
and a suggestion OF the fertility of
Alaska as well.
Chicken Billy is a good type of tho
farmers of the far north. l first met
him yesterday afternoon. He called at
my hotel here in Dawson. y rough
looking young mai of less than medium
height, his face is bronzcd from the
hot summer sun of the Arctic and his
hands are horny with handling he
pillow. He wore a pair Of rough boots
that reached to his knees. blue jeans
trousers somewhat tho worse for the
wear and a shirt Of lannel open at the
neck that showed his brown chest.
He was in his working clothes, for he
had brought some of his crop of hot
house vegetables into Dawson for sale.
he introduced himself as William An
stett, nicknamed Chicken Billy, and
asked mo to go with him up the river
to look at his farms. ! accepted the
invitation, and have just returned from
the trip, the most interesting 1 have
yet had on the Yukon.
But hrst let me tell you something
about farming in the Far North. Daw-
son is near the Arctic Circle, and tho
country about it is thought by many
to be snow and ice the year round. Tho
faot is the winters last only until
"A Al - --1
zners are almost perpetual daylight, so
that nature puts on it's seven league
boots and works the greater part Of
the night. AS to the farming in gem
eral, the most of il is in very small
patches. There are gardens about the
liners cabins where they raise pota-
toes and turnips, green peas and hects,
ard carrots and celery. Last year ono
man grew forty ons of turnips, or 1,320
bushels upon a field OF one acre, and
from another acre the Same man raised
Bel bushels Of potatoes. His crop Of
vegetables all told weighed 200 tons.
Another farmer recently brought In a
cau1iflower which measured ten inches
In diameter, a turnip Weighing four
teen pounds. and six heads of cabbage
which when put on the scales reg
istered $50 pounds light I have these
figures from Albert Z. Lamb, one of
the government officials of Yukon ter
ritory. and a man entitled to credit.
He is an enthusiast on farming In the
, Yukon and says tho day is coming when
Y no vegetables will be brought in from
q outside.
r.- Already n number of homesteads
q have been taken up in the territory.
an" there are little farms here and
there on the banks of the Yukon River
and on the islands which pepper It's
surface. There are also great farms
under glass. Dawso itself has acres
OF hothouses, and there are other hot
houses belonging to Joseph w. Boyle
in the heart OF the Kltndike. He keeps
them to supply his miners with the
earliest greens and vegetables that the
Arctic sun will produce.
CHICKEN BILLY, BACHELOR,
THIRTY-sEvTsN YEARS OLE
And now a word about Chicken Billy
He is an American, a bachelor, only
thirty-seven years old, and good to hit
mother. I know this. for the old lady
although she is over four-score, is now
on her way from Seattle to the Klon.
dixie. She likss' the cold weather. and
prefers to spend her winters in Billy's
cabin rather than with her wcll-to.
do son in the States.
Billy was born in Philadelphia, anc
went to school there. He was ETH
under twenty when he passed the ex-
4 anlfnations for appointment TO the nav,
at the time OF the Cuban War. II
was SO excited over his SUCCESS tina,
when he came into the hands OF tn,
surgeons to be tested as TO his physlca
& fitness his heart was throbbing at IN,
rate OF a hundred and odd heats to tn.
minute, and the result was that tn,
81 doctors pronounced him unit for IN,
service. They said he had heart dis
ease Billy then worked at odd Jobs
without great 6uccess. until ono day II,
saw a paper describing the strike II
the Klondike. The article was hcade
f'Cold at the Grass-Roots." and Bill,
tells me he decided to get Into III,
grass and dig out n fortune. He hac
only SIT ahead at the time. but with
tina he got to st. Paul and theme,
worked his way to Skagway.
He walked In over the Dvea ,rai
and fought for his own with the miner
Of Dawson. He got some gold fror
his various ventures, but made no III
S5 strikes, and finally gave up mining an
went into For this purpos
he bought NJ island on the Yukon no
far from the mouth of the KlondIk.
and built him n OF logs wit
= IbSe IlIo - AoSAbiH VIC 'hlll ~
a time he did well. His Eggs sold 70
go cents each, and his fat chicken
brought in $40 or $50 n dozen. II
built UT. his flock until he had aN
r. chickens and his fresh-laid eEgs bc
came so we'll known that he acquire
his nickname, Chicken billy. which II
holds to- thie day throughout tho Who'll
egton He thought he was on the IA
road to fortune when competition cam
In. The Qthcr poultry raisers ca
prices and chickens dropped to s
apiece. Billy found that hts hens di
81 not do so we'll in large flocks. IIc wa
losing money and looked about f.
\ other kinds Of farming instead. He
now raising only fancy chickens an
fAdevoting his energy to hogs and PC
Il fatoeS with crops OF turnips and oat
now and then on the side.
+ went to see Billy's farms in cor
pany with him and DIR. G. NJ. Faulkne
the acting United states Consul at paw
son. DR.. Faulkner has n dairy far
OF 200 acres OF the opposite side {