The Cordova daily times., 1921-06-17
INTERIOR HAS
 GREAT FUTURE

seems incredible to most people liv- ing in the United States proper, where the idea of Alaska is one con. nected with snow and icebergs, Dollar
 bears and walrus, Arctic foxes and Arctic hares, reindeer and the Es. kimo
 That the broad valleys of the in- terior of Alaska will become a grain country there is but little doubt in the minds of the peopl,, who have given the subject much thought. All fears to the contrary are soon set at rest when one visits the farms in the vicinity of Fairbanks at har- vest time. There one will find wheat, oats and barley fin shock or in the process of harvesting with tractor or teams just as one finde in the states. Grain fields of fifty acres or more are not uncommon, and, using the expressions of the president and the vice-president of the First National Banz of lair banks when they, for the first timo ventured to visit the farms last summer: Would you believe it: It looks like the outside!" And how much more surprised is the visitor from the states or even from the coast of Alaska when he visits this region and is confronted with fields of ripened grain and sees the binder at work and real harvest time in Alaska. The thing is done; the frozen north is giving up her treas ure in food as we'll as gold. The farmer has come to stay and eyi. dence to this fact is growing every year. During the past year four teen new homestead entries were made in the local land office bringing the total to 107 homesteads within the surveyed area near Fairbanks. There are approximately 75 home steads on the unsurveyed lands within the Tanana valley. Within the surveyed area there are 24,337 acres of land in the homesteads, 1413 acres of which are under cul- tivation, and approximately 325 acres of land under cultivation on the 75 homesteads outside of the surveyed lands. The latter are simply squat ters' homesteads awaiting the gov ernment survey of the lands before they are entered in the land office.
 Farm crops grown the past year amounted to approximately $17S,OOO in the Tanana valley. fhe entire crop was used at home and in addi- tion thereto several hundred tons of hay and grain feed were shipped into the interior from the states and sold on our markets.
 The following figures give the acreage, yield per acre, total yield and value of farm crops, Fairbanks market prices.
 Wheat-1e6 acres, 15 bushels, 60 tons, $12,6OO.
 Oats-40 acres, 35 bushels, 22 tons, |s3,9eO.
 Barley-1o acres, 26 bushels, 6 tons, s1,OSO.
 G. hay-136S acres, A tons, 1926 tons, $1O2,6OO.
 Potatoes-16O acres tons, 4S0 tons, $52,SOo
 Vegetables-2O acres, tons, 100
 tons, $5,00O. N
 Total-1764 acres, 1894 tons, $17S,- 04O.
 The hay market will soon be filled with native grain, while the grain tfeed market is not appreciably ef- fected by the home crop. Wheat growing is nicely begun and good
 market is assured to the Fairbanks | farmer. The whole of the Yukon valley and all it's tributaries is the
 market for the grain, and flour
 milled from native grown wheat. | The advent of flour mill in Alas ka marks a new order of things. f Our bread stuffs can and will be produced at home. A small mill of
 25 barrels capacity per day is being erected at Fairbanks this spring. It is the property of the Panama Valley Agricultural Association, Inc.
 and all stock is owned by the farm
 CTS and the towns people of Fair
 banks. The mill assures the farmers of that vicinity and although living along the government railroad a mar
 ket for their wheat. The average