The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-10-20
ALASKA BISHOP
 KNOCKS TANANA
 FARM INDUSTRY

Ine rlSnt ReVefenO, blSnOp r. I Rowe, whose diocese is the territor! of Alaska, and who resides at Sitka made his annual inspection of thu Episcopal church work on the Yu kon and tributary waters of the Yu kon during the months of July ant August.
 The bishop travelled from White horse down the Yukon, up the Koyu kuk few hundred miles, up the Tan ana. to the mouth of the Yukon and III the coast for some distance on tht revenue cutter Bear. Some of the way he was compelled to use small boats and in this way travelled several hun dred miles.
 The Espiscopal church has schools scattered along the Yukon at different places and at least one hospital al Eagle. This hospital ministers to the natives and the whites fer a long lis. tance as it is the Or:y institution ot
 i; kind in a radius of many Hundred mics.
 The interior is more sparsely set tied at this time than it has been since the gold rush in 97 and 98 People have gone out. so that the out look is not promising for work at pre- sent in the interior. It is expected of course that the railroad, when completed will add something of in terest and business, but it is as yet question as how much it will con- tribute.
 The bishop feels that a far better site could have been chosen than the one taken for the town of Nenana The townsite is low. and part is food ed and high walks are used to get from one building to another. This will militate against the town for years to come.
 As to the coal at Nenana, nothing has yet been found except such as will have to be treated before using. It is of a low grade. The railroad from Nenana is laid for about fifty miles this runs along the Nenana rivel which is a swift and t,' . ~t stream and unless good engineering work is done on this section it will freuuently be washed out
 The great need of the interior is fuel as this is scarce and necessarily of high price, it practically prohibits mining at present time Only richest heds of ore can be worked s~' these the work is discOuraging on ac- these the work is discouraging on ac- count of the high prices of every thing used. The Nenana river has latent power enough for the electri- lying of large section of tnyrit,'y could the plant be installed aff,, if this were done it would be the means of providing a much needed source of power and heat for working the ground. The outlook for the coming winter is very poor. The Indians, less provided than the Eskimo, and de- pending upon the fish from the river for their food, will be terribly short this season, as almost no salmon have come up the river
 He with others was instrumental in preventing the establishment of more than one cannery upon the Yu- kon but that cannery with a limited output of 30,000 cases seems to ha, e successfully shut out the salmon from the upper river. For the past season that of a year ago salmon have been very scarce in the upper river. The natives used to get some thing from fur trapping but since the white man has come, he is getting less and less from this source, so that his condition instead of improv- ing is growing steadily worse. The Eskimo, however, is getting along in much better fashion than the In dian. He is more careful, more indust- rious and gets along more easily than the other.
 The herd of reindeer which the Episcopal mission had near Nenana has been turned back to the govern ment as it was found that the expense of keeping the herd was greater than the benefit derived would warrant. This station is somewhat too far south for the best results in that phase of the work.
 Of the prospects of farming in the interior, the bishops says there are none visible. The Matanuska section will eventually be a good agricultural country. But he cannot see anything in prospect for the Panama section. The government station at Fairbanks has done some good things but if the cost is taken into consideration, it would at once appear at what price this is being done, and that on the choicest sections of the land in that region. "You cannot do farming on an Xtcnsive scale. if it must be done un- der glass" Besides this you must have a market if you are to get on in bus mess: And as yet, there is little or