Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-10-15

eminent is expecting an invasion of home
steaders as soon as the railroad from Sew
ard to Fairbanks is completed Much of the
land is in what is known as the Tanana bot
tom. 1t comprises tract about 200 miles
long and in places, 20 miles wide Alto
gether it is about as big as the state of New
Jersey, and its cultivable country is one
fifth as large as the state Of Ohio. My jour
ney today was through rolling region as
beautiful as the Pennsylvania foothills of
the Alleghenies. The land rises from the
river and gently slopes to the mountains,
which are far off in the distance
AS we rode up the valley it was difficult
to realize that we were on the border of
arctic Alaska. The thermometer was at 90
degrees in the shade. There was no snow
on the tops of the mountains, and the hills
and valleys were covered with green. At
times we passed through plains spotted with
wild flowers There were beds of butter
cups as yellow as gold, and daisies as pink
as the cheeks OF baby In some places
the ground was covered with BURBERRY
bushes, the fruit as large as cherries and
loaded with juice. Now we passed through
forests of birch, spruce and cottonwood
Some of the trees were two feet in diameter
Where the woods had been cut or burned
away there were vast expanses of flaming
pink flowers as high as the wheels of the car
and everywhere the roadside was hedged
with green grass and red-top that reached
to the hubs. Now and then we went over
corduroy, our automobile bouncing high I'M
der the fast driving of the Jehu of this north
ern frontier.
We passed many small farms cut out OF
the woods with oat hay and potatoes in
blossom. We saw cattle grazing, and by
and by came to the experiment farm which
the government has established in the heart
of the Tanana valley, about four miles from
Fairbanks. The farm is beautifully located.
1T consists of 1880 acres of gently sloping
hillsides and bottom land, sloping at one
side to a wide stream and rolling thence on
UP and over low range of hills
At one end of the farm is the site recently
selected for the Alaska Agricultural college,
the corner stone of which was laid in 1915
The college will stand on hill, giving mag
nihcent views for 50 miles UP and down the
Tanana valley, taking in Fairbanks and also
the blue mountains, far off in the distance
On a bright day Mount Mckinley is visible
The campus will include a forest of birch
trees straight as an arrow. Their trunks
are as white as frosted silver, and they enL
at the top in green leaves
The experiment farm has from 80 to 100
acres under cultivation, and 40 acres more
are being cleared along the roadside AS we
rode by we could see men cutting the trees
and burning the brush A little farther on
we came to grain fields not little patches,
but fields that would be large on any farm
in Virginia. We passed tracts of oats ready
for reaping and rode through barley which
was four or more feet in height Above
these on the hills were the farm buildings,
with wheat planted last spring and now
ripening, and side by side with them strips
of experimental grains of one kind and an
other. On the crest of the hllsides were
long strips of Siberian buckwheat in front,
and a potato patch of five or six acres be-
tween it and the oat fields we first passed.
The potatoes were in full blossom, the vines
were luxuriant and the hilled-up rows
reached to my thighs.
Potatoes grow we'll in this part of Alaska
Two hundred bushels per acre is not un-
common, and the country is now raising
about all that is needed for the towns and
the camps. year or SO ago the station
sold the yield of five acres for $500, and il
has records of three acres which have pro-
duced value of from, $500 to 5000 per acre
;