Show ALASKA BY HARRY THORLEY e. e e i w ww laska What That a picture of snow I ice comes corner into the average peri's peris pers per per- i's is s mind when that word is used file ile ik it is true that we are becom- becom better acqua acquainted with it and its itsIe pic Ie Ic today than ever before there till ill an unbelievably wrong I regarding that wonderful coun- coun i i my mind the tile p picture shows are areg hg g more today than any oth other r one onecy onecy cy in continuing this wrong im- im sion sion Did iJ Id you ever see a northern picture showed anything other than w v and ami ice and dog teams If you I Ic c you ou have rather place of showing the wonderful covered with flowers and Jen n grass a picture that would be tome ome help to the country they al- al 5 have a snow scene scene a a dog scene boat locked in ice until the peo- peo have shave come conic to think of f Alaska in inIS inus us ms of ice and snow and cold told ther Borne ome years ago I spent a few the th in San Francisco While Ere re I met a family that had lived a time in Alaska They told me thc their r youngest child was bornt born born- bornn in n t far northern land I remember I peculiar it struck me to think I white child the world tyone one hours of hot sunshine There was wild fruit at every turn with wild chickens contentedly feasting upon it ft There were valleys with thousands of acres o of level fertile soil waiting for forthe forthe the maker home-maker and and there were mountains upon which not only thousands thousands thou thou- sands but millions of cattle and sheep will some day be grazing The 1919 trip simply gave me a strong desire to to go again and see sec more I have spent the summer of 1925 seeing more but as yet after again covering thousands of miles I Ican Ican Ican can only say that I have just begun I Alaska as s a Farming Country Alaska will some day have millions millions mils mil mil- lions of people living within its bor bor- ders This family will h have ve a small bunch of sheep that family will be running a dairy The next family will specialize in cattle but within it all allwill allwill allwill will be a happy and Contented farm community typical of our western states of today This This' condition will come about so sl slowly that that no man or woman woman living t today day will wilt be alive when it fully comes omes true but the possibilities are there without doubt In traveling through Alaska I have seen as fine wheat and oats patches as one can can see in a any y mans man's landI land I have also measured red clover stocks that were three feet long p r re t kt Mr Ben Mozee of Anchorage Alaska and tame sled rein reindeer leer Mr zee formerly lived in Nebraska but is now in charge of Indian education Government reindeer herds in Alaska ids ids' so much ice and snow and wally surviving To conceive of io pital in such a a. country was ut- ut ly Iy beyond me My ideas then are ideas of ninety-five ninety per cent of today Every very town of any consequence has hospital now as they undoubtedly 1 at that time but such modern it im- im were absolutely foreign my knowledge of the country My ly Iy first trip to the great north entry was in 1919 t t that time I started into the in- in country through a small port n called Valdez lefore reaching the ocean again I These great numbers of cattle am and sheep that I am predicting will some someday someday someday day be in that country will be fed fee for a few months in the winter time on this red clover and wheat and oa oat straw The remaining time they will wil graze in the most mot wonderful sumo r conditi conditions ns that a stockman's man J U od d d can conceive of The number of months that they will have to be fed will witt be no greater than the farmers of our Eastern states are feeding today today today to to- day and they witt will have have an abundance of free summer range A condition of privilege that states cast of us are arc short on I am not however advising any I J r J J I i Y i r 4 Ii kr b r 1 r i f 61 Reindeer with its horns just commencing to shoot out of the head Note Not Note Notee e e shovel growing down the nose This shovel is used to scrape the snow w ay ay from the feed vered ered several thousand miles Each lc lie was a revelation The Time valleys dotted with lakes the theUs Us IIi covered with grass from two to tour tour ur tir feet high and the vastness of ofis ofis is new world completely upset my notion of ice and nd snow In- In tad ead of Ice tee and snow I encountered red rig liS' hot dry days twin twin- filled with family o of today to move t to Alaska There are too many good propositions propositions still open in the western states In order to do well farming you mus t have population to consume what yoi YOt u produce Population is the time one thing thin g the north country lacks lack now and i f s Jik likely y to lack for hundreds of off year yea s yet yeti When it comes conies to vegetables o of all kinds they have any other part of the world beaten that I have ever seen I never knew what a big cabbage looked like until I went to Alaska I have uve teen keen used to these small western western western west west- ern states cabbages the kind that it takes three or four to fill a pot but when I saw whole acres of them weighing from 25 to 47 Ibs I simply quit talking cabbage as I had known them and began to think of them a aa as asa a bigger and better vegetable than thant I f t had ever seen before I was staying at a hot hotel l ort on th th- th bank of the the Yukon river about miles above Dawson this summer The woman running the hotel had a 1 garden When she desired to make a salad for dinner instead of picking a whole cabbage as a housewife would do in this country she simply took her t nife 1 and cut what she needed leaving the rest of the plant to keep on growing until she again desired salad for her guests Her wants forone for one day were so small in comparison to the whole size of the plant that thatto thano to have picked it all at one onetime onetime onetime time would have been waste Another woman gardner told me that she had picked as high as eighty tomatoes tomatoes' from one plant These eighty tomatoes would not all be ripe It is more than likely that most of them would be green Dut But how many of of you in this part of the world have ever picked even half haH of eighty tomatoes from one vine Vegetables and plants are arc arc of of an entirely entirely entirely en en- different size size in that that far nort north country than they arc ar are here I think think that it must be the additional sunlight that accounts for the immense growth While it would be difficult for one oneto oneto oneto to conceive of eighty tomatoes growing growing growing grow grow- ing on one plant as we know that plant here yet it isa is a story very easily easily easily ily believed when you see that same tomato plant more the time size of f a ayoung ayoung ayoung young tree as they know it there The question is very often asked q x gy y r tl R 4 ti tit v r t I f X Xa l a Two Arctic pack mules loaded with moose meat After passing thru thins one one or two gruelling experiences of this kind a man soon hesitates about shooting n meat too far away from his boat n me Will fruit grow in Alaska I 1 saw one cherry tree close to Skagway with ripe cherries on it Close by the time cherry tree was an apple apple apple ap ap- tree with green apples on it ft I cannot say whether or not they got ripe but I do know that they survived survived survived sur sur- the spring frosts and were wellon well wellon on their way to developing into fine ripe apples in July when I saw them The truth is however that Alaska already has more fruit than it knows what to do with Not fruit as we i I know it here but wild fruit of more I kinds than a resident of Utah ever dreamed of They rhey have very little need of our apples apples' and cherries and other kinds of domestic fruits The wild fruit grows everywhere in abundance abundance abundance dance and their desires for sweets have been amply provided for I am inclined to believe that there thereSs is Ss enough wild fruit going to waste in the Arctic every year to feed the i world if it could all aU be gathered and made use of Take the red English currant as an example that we pet and pamper in our gardens here hi in Utah They grow up and down every cree creek creed bank These creek banks extend from hundreds to thousands of miles long so y you u un in un inbe be the time judge of the size of the redcurrant red fed currant patches A man told me that thai he Ire gathered a five gallon can ca'n full olred of ol red currants currants from one bush Again as in the case of the tomato plant you will have to picture a much bigger big big- ger r bush than the one you have been us used d to here before you will believe that five gallons of fruit was picked from one bush Along si side e of the time red English currant currant currant cur cur- rant you will wilt find the black English currant growing in about the same generous quantities From these two currants wonderfully tasty jams and jellies arc are made both by the housewives housewives housewives house house- wives and the lone one prospector Up on the time hills hilts just a short distance distance distance dis dis- tance from the cree creek banks you will wilt find two different kinds of ries One called the high bush cranberry cranberry cranberry cran cran- berry and the other called the low bush cranberry The low bush is different different dif diC- dif dif- ferent from the high bush in that it has no seeds and therefore is the most sough after Both kinds make excellent jellies and at each meal in inthe inthe inthe the woods when these fruits are used II a fellow finds himself wandering back in his mind to Thanksgiving dinners where cranberries and turkeys made the day one long to be remembered In the woods the place taken by the time turkey is very well filled by te tender der c cuts ts from the loin of a fat moose or caribou If moose or caribou are not desired the ptarmigan the spruce hen or the willow grouse may be very easily killed and made alm almost st as tasty as the domestic turkey These rhese wild 1 meats with a generous heaping of delicious delicious delicious de de- de- de licious cranberry jelly make a meal the memory of which never leaves a aman aman aman man if he lie is once fortunate enough t to partake p of it They also have raspberries strawberries strawberries strawberries straw straw- berries dewberries salmon berries and blueberries growing everywhere in profusion Of the blueberry too much cannot be written To take the blueberry away from the bill of fare of the people peo peo- people pIe of the north would be like eliminating eliminating eliminating elim elim- th the apple from front the American nation naHon When the blueberry blueberry- commences coma com to ripen which is is' in the time hatter latter latter lat hat ter part of August all other classes classes' of fruits are almost forgotten I have often made the statement that a man man can walk five hundred bundred miles in any direction in the Arctic and sit down any place He wishes in the time five Hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred miles and anti reach leach from where he heis heis heis is sitting all the blueberries he can cat eat White While this may be somewhat of f fan an exaggeration it will give you an idea o of the vastness of this kind of 1 fruit It simply grows everywhere just as the grass does and can either be picked by the time quart or hundreds of gallons Men and women pick them then and sell them either cither by the quart or and fortun fortunate te indeed is he lie who gets a fill of this wonderful berry When I and my guide were out in inthe inthe the time hills shooting game while one of ofus ofus ofus us was frying moose or caribou steak for breakfast the other would be just a short distance from the tent picking blueberries Dy By the time time the time steak was done there would be a aquart aquart aquart quart or a gallon of berries ready A meal of such fruit together with such wonderful wild meat and add to it hot biscuits biscuit's butter and coffee coHee can never be forgotten v. v while bite the mind of the hunter lasts As to the growing of our domestic grains there is absolutely no question about producing them in almost every every ev ev- ery cry nook and corner of that vast d do do- main I have seen acres and acres o ol 01 t wheat oats barley and rye that stood to ones one's shoulders and the time yield pet pe r acre was about the same ar af we would woul d harvest in Utah They are gradually producing o 01 r developing an alfalfa that will in time tim prove successful bl but t so far it has no nol t grown so well as other forage crops Red clover seems to do exceptional y well also brome gra grass s. s just above Dawson on the Yukon river there is a It small island that has been cleared and planted to brome grass This small farm it is owned and ando o operated by a man who runs s several veral large freight teams up and down doW the Klondike river and he uses the forage forage for for- age ae thud produced to feed eed his horses while doing this class of heavy work The brome grass grau on this farm usually usually us us- stands about six f feet et high at cutting time and the time growing of it itIs itis itis is proving to be a great money saver saverto to the man taking the time place as it does docs of alfalfa from rom the time states that usually costs laid down in Dawson better than per ton Potatoes were at one time in the history of time the north country worth per pound Men craved and ate them as we do apples Prospectors in inthe inthe inthe the hills unable to get potatoes died of that terrible disease called not realizing that the time 1 plot lot of if ground upon which they were standing would produce more more than enough of time the vegetable vegetable vegetable that would have saved them At the present time near every cabin cab l. l in the hills hilts where men mep reside you will wilt see a garden and in that garden along with many other fine growing plants can be sten seen potatoes equal to the time best Alaska as a Grazing Country When a stockman goes to the north and sees the hundreds and thousands of miles of summer range going to waste waste his first wish is for a band of sheep or a bunch of cattle so that he lie might turn the rank growth of vegetation into something of value All of the gold and silver ever mined mined mined min min- ed in that country isn't a drop in the I bucket in comparison to the value of i the vegetation if it could be turned I into beef and mutton chops I have I I Malamute dogs The The work hor horses es of the North These dogs dos are rc descendants de descendants de de- of the grey ey wolf I often made the statement that all aIr of th the sheep and cattle in in America could find summer range there Take the sheep sheep that we have here in inthe inthe inthe the United States and place them on acres in the Arctic and you would woud still have many times acres upon which you could run your cattle What about letting reindeer eat thi this vegetation some men ask There is absolutely no question about reindeer being raised successfully lly but the time big sticker is finding a market for the I meat after you get it produced I I The rhe north now has several seve 1 hundred thousand reindeer and is capable of I handling millions but the meat can canI I never stand competition with beef and mutton because it is only deem dee meat I l the range The reindeer at the present time are handled a good deal as we handle handl sheep Two or three men take care of from one to three thousand held head headin he d din in a band The men move th their ir camp from time to time as a's as the time de deer r move and the animals become so tame that corrals arc are not always needed even at marking time The young calves |