‘MET? ALASKA.
CARL RASKDdSEF, EWlu.U
1 . iishe<? over.y Friday at Palmer. Alaska, for the...Matnnuplcn V; llcy
.vaers Cooperating Association, for the'purpose of giving nr vs of "\e
r ^* 2 \vork - r'i ble.ns ? vu accomf lxslu.icnts. i.ews of lnt.-r st
J: _Bgz_; X, QQ„., ain&laJ'gi T-lOiLi.
’ , SPRING CALLS LV.T: WE MUST RETURN TO THE SOIL
, ay one who has-been miser1 on a farm, whoever he mny be or regnr "loss
< ' what he Is doing,' always feel3 the coming presence of sprln0 i.at-'
t. re Is a certain inclination to return to the scene of farm activi
t; s. Where a new project is bein6 starter', sometimes city people f end
t) feelin^ off by liberal dosage of sirin& tonics and remain in the-‘
we that holds their daily course, but when one is close to the eqrle
and the soil that supports them it is a hard thing to resisti
i.ba Editor has a feeling of this kind this spring, and it is our in
tention to 0ive way to the ur^e and concentrate our energies n the
f rm front and forget about trials an-1 tribulations of. bein^ -n Editor
s smaT1 community oarer. Not th.at we think that our job * s not 1m
p "tant an-1 that it'should ...certainly be- done, but because we eon n; t
afford to divide our time between the two jobs — th*at is running' a farm
■ i;d also a newspaper.
' he two jobs do not w-rk well toeether .because there ere too many
IV tie details that must bo taken care of in connection with the j - : s .
tl at conflict with one another. Both are full time jobs if rtepr.per
1 , and wo prefer the farm and feci that1 it is too much work and rc
s nsibility to handle the paper too, We ore going to run the farm this
y ■ r and let other things go. •
ice Writer takes rride in being one of the people who have \elped in
tie development of the Mat anus ka Valley and- the. Cooperatives ' ; 'When we
(:■ -o t*o the Mat anus ka Valley in 1937, two years after the establishing
f the project, we were, somewhat discouraged because practic* ily cv r*y
C loni'st,' -whom vye met, folt that this project was a failure t nd tint it
w sld "eventually fold up; however, after observing.the. raisin^ f ne
or p on the farms, that year we were sure that the possibility f ouc
e s was here and that it co-uld be attained by proper -methods .of farm
1 , and an adjustment ef the debts, that no one believed, coni'* be _ air
a if a. marketing facility, was' developed, then It could and 'veuld be
r ’ucceSs. ’ •
/ short tijne later n debt adjustment was mare a nr while* It ir not
q *te meet, the wishes of the writer, in many instances, an? : r. ople
S' arte'1 to work nbr in, but then the question of marketing bee me a
l h 'blem. When the. Management cf the Cooperative was finally turn- t'
evi r'tro the people, it began to improve f nd has corn! a long w y on the
r nd to success. Then the demand for payments on the farms, fc fore the
development for bro'ductn and marketing had been brought to ? print
w’ ore it wps possible, harassed the farmers, hut that phase f the
.q:. sti'n was-ironed out, the hard way of course. Few it seers that mos'
r the farms can and will be paid for, of course some farmer, will leav
bo' ethprs .will take their place, so in the long run It will be pessibl
t achieve the success desired,
• sew the Co-op when it seemed to tie doomed under , the management
t t then existed, '.Vhen it became the property of the people* who were
its. natrons acustomers, it immediately befcan to operate- s that it •
w an asset- instead of a liability, despite the fact that the men who
v. re in control predicted that it coul ’ not operate without beinc sub
s^ ized, and we remember that the farmers . of the Valley were not selling
v :y much to *he Army in 1940 c.nr1 1941, These years were tough ones
f r the average Valley Farmer, and yet the first two years sa.w a cum
• 1 te reversal of conditions.