AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES OP
VALLEY NOW IN PULL SWING
Early settlers who have crops to
harvest are now busily engaged in
putting them away.
E. w. Watson, who has farmed, in
the valley for ten years, has an
excellent mixed stand of Victory
oats and Canadian field peas. It
would command the respect of any
farmer in the States.
The oats have reached the height
of 4j- feet and are well headed. The
peas are over six feet tall and are
abundantly podded to the very top.
These two make an ideal combination
as they mature simultaneously and
offer an excellent feed ration for
stock. The yeild will run as high
as 2-J tons 11 the acre.
OTHER CROPS GOOD
There are also some good stands
of Swedish Select oats and Siberian
wheat. The latter is a fine hard
milling wheat making a good grado
of flour. Mr. Don L. Irwin, head
of the ARRC Farming Division, says
that a mill will be erected hero .as
soon as the acreage warrants it.
Clover is another crop that has
brought out much favorable comment
from visitors to the valley. Fred
Edlund of Wasilia raises some prize
Alsike clover and Mr. Irwin brought
in some samples of the Sweet vari
ety more than six feet tall* He
also had a bundle of winter rye
with full six inch heads. One stool
counted 22 stalks, all grown from
one seed grain.
Otner samples Dnugnt in oj pir.
Irwin included hull-loss barley,
votch, alfalfa and timothy. The
barley will bo threshed, and by
government test has been proven to
be 97%, as fattening as corn when
fed to eattie, hogs or chickens.
ENSILAGE PROBLEM SIMPLE
Vetch, when mixed with oats at
planting, makes either good hay or
ensilage. When put up in the lat
ter form trench silos are used, if
the pit is then covered with a foot
of straw there will be no danger of
it freezing as it creates its own
heat.
The alfalfa was cut from a ten
years-old stand which produces two
crops a season, each of which will
attain the height of 5A feet. The
clover also reaches hay cutting
maturity twice a year. The tim
othy is tall and heavy but cuts
only me crop. Bromo grass not
only makes the best of hay, but is
the top for pasturage.
WILD HAY IMPORTANT ITEM
Of the wild hays Sedge grass is
undoubtedly the best of the 22
varieties native to Alaska. Mr.
I»win is authority for the state
ment that it has more nutritive
value than good timothy.
On the flats just below here ■
THE TRADING POST will be one
of the weekly features and will
list any swaps you nay wish to
make. Just let the Editor know
what you have to trade.
are over a thousand acres of var
ious kinds of wild hay and this
land has been withdrawn from
homestead entry to be kept solely
for community use.
Harry Sears, Farm Foreman for
the aRRC, has already put up 125
tons of wild hay for the colony
stock, and still has 200 acres of
oat and pea hay to cut.
This will not quite carry.the
265 head of cows and horses over
the winter, but had the haying
machinery arrived earlier it
would not be necessary to make
any outside purchases of stock
feed even this first year of get
ting the colony established.
HEALTH CONDITIONS GOOD
AT ALL VaLLEY camps
Health conditions show a very
narked improvement in the valley
according to Dr. C. Earl Albrecht,
physician for the Colonists.
There are but four patients in
the Isolation Hospital, two recov
ering from scarlet fever, one from
measles and one from infantile pa
ralysis. The latter, Lucille
Ring, Is showing decided improve
ment.
All parents are urged to watch
for early symptoms of disease in
their children, and to consult
the doctor at once. The common
cold may be the forerunner of
measles, diptheria or some other
c o mmunic ab1e disease. Dr. Al
brocht feels that all danger of
an epidemic is past. Dr. Earl E.
Ostrom, physician for the con
struction corps camp, reports
general health conditions good,
with no one in the hospital at
present.
TWO PROMINENT VISITORS
HERE ON HURRIED TRIP
Rex Beach, prominent author,
and H. W. Terhune, executive of
ficer of the Alaska Game Commis
sion, visited palmer August 20th,
Mr. Bench said the rush of work
reminded him of early gold camps,
about which he has written so many
fine stories. He will return next
week for a more thorough study of
valley ana will make a tour of the
cal o n ?. s a t :■ o r p r o j e c t.