The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-05-16

settlers Their first No l man was Don L. Irwin, tall, rangy. philosophic agronomist from Alaska Agricultural College When he left, discontented farmers circulated a round- robin letter asking him to come back. Then came Samuel Richard Fuller rayon manu- facturer who sent to Matanuska to smooth things over
 After him, the Marines were called in the person of Col LeRoy P Hunt Matanuskans affectionately call him their Happy Colonel" Though soldier, his first act was to demili- tarize the Preferably -regmented colony. He kept his sense of humor and asked for the glad hand instead of snappy salutes. Eugene C"Trouble- Shooter Carr from Washington found Matanuska forging ahead under the Happy Colonel"
 They are going ahead, along with spring planting, by envisaging a "Second-Year Plan" Land will be cleared, more roads built, and a creamery and cannery erected. modern hospital, workers dormitory and central grade and high schools with buses are nearing completion.
 If each farmer occupies forty acres, the Valley could accommodate at least $50 more families, agronomists estimate. But, they add, it means hard work.
 Farmers must dig to get at the soil Alas kan ground is covered with moss and tundra. Under that is gravel; under the gravel, the needed loam. With little or no draining in Matanuska Valley water from melting snow and ice seeps directly into the ground mak- ing the earth too rich for productive farm ing. There are as many as three crops in the 130 summer days with twenty hours of sunshine.
 That nourishes the worlds biggest pota- toes, 400 bushels to the acre, but Alaskans don't like them, because they are wet and soggy. The worlds largest strawberries, as big as baby's fist, are stringy and tasteless. Rhubarb-stalks, as thick as baseball-bat are tender, though the leaves look uncommonly like orse-blankets
 Peas rival Jacks bean-stalk eight feet tall with six-inch pods, thirty bushels to the acre. Cabbages run from fifteen to forty pounds each; carrots as long as your foot run eight tons to the acre, while turnips as big as a mans head average twentytwo tons an acre without benefit of fertilizer.
 Yet, for example Matanuska lettuce and tomatoes would make most inferior salad. There's a reason for this rank growth with loss of flavor: Alaska's crops rot almost as rapidly as they grow.
 Though nature may be prolific with her fertile gifts in the Valley Alaskan agricul- tural engineers say more than conversion of a wilderness into a homeland is needed. The farmers can produce all the food they need,
 
 no market for their surpluses.
 Transportation facilities are few, and freight-rates are very high It costs much to ship crate of American grown pota- toes from Seattle to Ketchikan, 664 miles, as it would to ship crate of Alaskan-gro spuds from Ketchikan to New York.
 When homesteaders grow tired of vegetar ianism, and don't want to eat their own live stock-cattle, goats, and hogs-they might go hunting grizzly-bears, mountain-sheep and wild goats on the nearby peaks. Moose, woodland caribou, spruce -partridges, ptarmi- gan, geese, ducks, and rabbits the for ests and tarns but new colonists must pay heavily to hunt legally, for licenses are ex- pensive for the cheechako CtenderfooD.
 If wild game is plentiful, put costly to shoot, fish is equally plentiful, and costs nothing to catch. Salmon follow the tides up the Matanuska River. These huge, voracious fish snap at fly, or strike savagely at glitter ing spinners Customs records at Juneau Alaskan Capital alone show 42,290 pounds of iced trout shipped from Southeastern AL aska in the first six months of last year
 Now, there's not much time for hunting and fishing It's time to plant another crop, for spring has hit Alaska with a rush. When the ice broke in the Panama River on April 30, it was Alaska's official spring, and two syndicates of Juneau citizens holding lucky tickets split 2,000 pot, less $18000 taxes Tor Uncle Sam. (The Covich syndicate in Juneau received half the pool the other half going to Anchorage)
 It's the twentieth anniversary of a lottery that began at Nenana, a railway junction fifty miles south of Fairbanks, with a $500 wager on when the ice-ja would break up, Now, every sourdough who can spare dollar takes a chance because he knows it's on the square.
 Aaskans love to gamble every Jack London and Rex Beach fan knows. To jeer- ing prospectors, trappers, and fishermen who turn gravel, belts, and silver salmon into gold, and tell the Matanuskans that their colony is a hopeless gamble that won't turn up a winner, the farmers reply, as they go about their spring planting
 Say that again in five years
 Marion zioncheck says the people of Puerto R