1      ‘ 4 KENTUCKY ALUMNUS  A·
_ A A s A - AA i was the modern Garden of Eden. On every Side The fact that strawberries are successfully A
- i .1 A   were the everlasting mountains, and way up there grown in what has been considered the jungle I
i· _ on their sides, where man had never trod, were wastes of Alaska will probably be the occasion of  ,
4 i G A   what appeared to be small meadows, and little considerable amazement and surprise to many
  _;     · groves of fir treees that=looked like tiny patches people. This phase of farming, termed ranching,  Q
A i AA A — of green velvet amidst the snow fields; there were is assuming considerable projections commer- . ·
. i A glaciers, small and large, alive and dead, the ac- cially.
. ,   A A cumulation of centuries of ice and snow. I stood Although the berries are cultivated from Ram-  
_ i A . Q as if in a trance, thrilled at the wild and pictur- part on the Yukon river, just under the Arctic l
· it . esque beauty, and the globe trotters who have not Circle, to Dixon’s Entrance, the Canadian boun- j ·
i 4 I visited this country have something yet to see in dary on the left, yet strawberry culture has met
1   4 4 this world. I, a-chichacko, found a land truly and with far more success near Hainis, a coast village 4 A
A   i Q il-, 1 4 literally flowing in milk and honey. in the Chilkat Valley, southeastern Alaska, than  
1     ` ~ *15   Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for in other-sections. t · · ·  
E   ,   1 the paltry sum of $7,200,000. The vast tract of The virgin ground 1S timbered with birch, hem- I
i   _ { ‘ AA - A land of 591,884 square miles of territory, is ap- lock, spruce, and cottonwood, and growing in these Y 
Q     A   . proximately the size of Germany, France and primeval forests are dense thickets of alders,  
Q i A S Spain combined, or about fourteen times the area devil’s clubs and willows, all matted together with  
A A   f j   of Kentucky. There are $75,000,000 acres of land currant, blueberry, salmonberry, and other un- if
*  `   ` ‘ i that cost less than two cents an acre. According dergrowth into an almost impenetrable jungle. AQ
i   A q to the census of 1920 the population was 55,889, The cost of preparing the ground for the plow-in A?
A . A A and consisted of 27,883 whites, 26,421 Indians, this particular locality—even after the large trees  
  . 128 Negroes, 56 Chinese, 312 Japanese, and 99 are removed by the land-owner, is about $500 per V _, 
; T other nationalities. However, as the population acre, yet the first crop will show a financial return  
A , A has been on the decrease for many years it is very equal to or exceeding that figure provided the year  
A   l likely that the census this year will show several is at all seasonable. j 
i l thousand less persons than in 1920. Practically every homesteader has his berry  
it . The purchase of the country by Mr. William patch, but the most successful strawberry ranch-  
AJ ’ ‘ H. Seward, Secretary of State, was ridiculedby man in Alaska is C. H. Anway, who has, in addi-  
. · V i the press and public and was referred to as "Sew- tion to the great amount of acreage in, by experi-  
. I ard’s Icebox." Mr. Seward was asked by a friend menting originated and produced the largest fruit  
j   what he considered the outstanding event of his in the Territory, which is known as the "Anway  
  A— career, and he replied, "The purchase of Alaska," Berry." Ten of the larger berries, when placed on  
E A but it took the people a generation to find it out. the scales by me showed a weight of sixteen and  
  · Even when Mr. Seward died he was not aware two-thirds ounces. Mr. Anway has about four j.  ·
  of the untold wealth in the country. Even some acres in cultivation, which will average about 225  
V J of the land that cost practically nothing per acre crates, 24 pints each, per acre, most of which are  
4 ij, , ` , has produced a thousand dollars per acre in farm shipped to merchants in Alaska, to Canada, and  
  , 1 products. Since its purchase sixty-three years Seattle, where they are wholesaled for $4.80 per  
_   l ago, the territory has exported over one billion crate, while a few are retailed locally at twenty-  A
4 ” [ dollars in gold, silver, copper, fish, furs, and other five ceents per pint. The gross revenue is in ex- S
A   products. Only last year they exported seventy- cess of $1,000 per acre.  4
- i four million dollars worth of products with im- It may be surprising to know that there are 1·· 
_   ‘ A ports of thirty—two millions, leaving a balance of honey bees in that country, which so many thou- ._ 
· { A trade in favor of Alaska of forty—two millions. sands believe contains nothing but icebergs, snow  
; _ A AA The value of the fur alone shipped last year and extreme cold weather the entire year. There  
- i amounted to $4,513,863, which is more than half are real honey bees in the olden North and it is  
·-  I what the country originally cost. due entirely to an ex-soldier, Thomas Dixon Page. _A 
Q   Alaska is a loyal, patriotic country. If I remem- The United States Department of Agriculture, ‘
i _ ber correctly, on every school house I saw, and on through its local main station at Setka, experi-  
Q   many private homes, there was Old Glory. Dur- mented in bee culture with no success. They im- 1
 V i ing the World War they furnished more men for ported very hardy bees from the Carpathian  
,. A i the colors than any other community in the mountains, but they had to be fed the year round,  
  `Q United Statees according to population, and in being unable to gather enough to sustain them- AA
  ; ~ l their subscription to Victory loans they were sec- selves. Finally the second year they succumbed.  
 ‘ · ‘ ond only to Delaware. _ (Continued on Page Thirteen) TE 
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