The Alaska daily empire., 1920-03-12
ANCHORAGE
 IS ALASKA'S
 GARDEN SPOT
Farmers Are Engaging in Di' versified Farming and
 Find Ready Market
STUDS RIVAL YAKIMA
Tillers of Soil in Good Shape and Acreage Will Be
 Steadily Increased

Strong faith in the greatness of
 Alaska's future as an agricultural country is voiced by Harry c Me
 Cain, Anchorage farmer who is spend 1 ing few days in Juneau in the in. terests of his fellow-townsmar, Jack
 Chovin, candidate in the Republican primarits for the office Of NJ ion.., Committeeman. MT. Mccain IS
 University graduate and has ex ended experience as an educator and lecturer, yet notwithstanding this training, he has decided to make farmign in Alaska his business.
 "The farmers of Anchorage and in the Matanuska section are in better shape now than ever before. said MT. McCa today. During ths coming season much additional acree SC will be pit int crop. I have upwards of twenty acres in crop or my ranch ;w5 miles south of An ',0rage
 All kinds of vegetables were a good crop in the Anchorage section last year including potatoes that would make Yakima jealous. A ready sale
 was found at home for every pound of spud that was raised last season. The first attempt at potato culture was not a great success, as the grow
 CTS made the mistake of planting in
 damp, heavy ground, and as a re. suit the potatoes were soggy They
 have now discovered that planting in light, dry soil, and properly fertilzed
 the finest kind of tubers can be
 raised. The Alaskan former has to learn the same lessons that all
 agriculturlsts in pioneer and virgin
 soils have had to learn.
 Diversified Farming
 "Our people are going in for d. versified farming. Messers Bogard Winchester and Bargman are at the present time supplying the local
 market with large supplies of fresh pork. Besides these hog breeders who are in the business on fairly large scale, there are a number of others who are operating on small CT scale, with one up to a dozen porkers. The local demand at An chorage will more than take care of the amount of meat produced at present, but. there is little. doubt that before many years large supplies of
 meat will be shipped ont of that vicinity.
 Several Anchorage farmers have shipped in milk and fancy Angora goats. and they are all reported do ing well. Chickens are also being
 raised in considerable quantity, and there are lots of home-produced fresh eggs on the market"
 When asked about the possibility of ripening grain in his section, MT
 Mccain stated that he had ripened several acres of bald barley himself last season and that other ranchers had done the same. not only with barley but with wheat, particularly the Romanow and Russian "4-G'' varieties that have been developed at the Fairbanks experimental sta tion. Oats were ripened without difficulty. When it comes to peas, y said MT. Mccain, waxing enthusias. tic, both garden and field varities, our little section of the territory has the whole U s. A. beaten to a frazZle.'
 Aid to Development
 Asked what he considered the best
 method of assisting the agricultural
 development of Alaska, MT. Mccain said he believed that a low rate should be established on shipments of all kinds of breeding animals into the Territory; that small bounty on ripened. threshed grain would be of assistance for a few years and would greatly increase production. He also believes it is necessary to enact some sort of legislation to overcome the