Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1909 — REMARKABLE FARMS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REMARKABLE FARMS.

Satural Hot Water Products Near the Arctic Circle. ? What is perhaps the most remarkable farm In the world Is located In Alaska on a small tributary of the Tanana river, only 125 miles south of the arctic circle. It Is owned and managed by J. F. Karshner. Karshner • few years ago was engaged In hnntlng gold when he came across something which astonished him very much. It was a little stream of hot water. He traced the stream to a Bpring, which was likewise hot, and R presently became obvious that a considerable area was underlaid by such springs. Promptly deciding that this was a discovery more profitable than a gold mine, Karshner gave up prospecting, obtained a quantity of vegetable seeds of various kinds and started in to raise garden truck. The temperature in that region sometimes falls to 65 degrees below zero In wirier, but a natural system of hot watef heating, free of cost, was Just the thing for truck gardening near the arctic circle, where potatoes have a market value of 25 cents a pound and other vegetables bring pilces In proportion. The Karshner farm occupies a fiat area with a convenient slant toward the sotith. Hot water oozing out of the ground forms three small streams, Which empty Into the nearby river. The warm spring extends over a distance of about a mile, and, as the owner says, “the heat In the ground has to be felt to be believed.” He adds: “I have never seen vegetables grow as they do here. The place has a climate of its own. Often there is no frost when It is freezing everywhere else.” B

The hot water farmer has seventy hens. He has also six fine pigs. His crop of potatoes this year will toe 100 tons, at 850 bushels to the acre. To* bacco has made a great growth. Tomatoes are a success. Squashes of several kinds are grown, some of them weighing as much as fifty-three pounds. Karshner gets $1 apiece for his muskmetons. This hot water market garden most be a wonder in its way, but it is doubt* ful whether its owner deserves as much credit as belongs to Frank L. Howard, United States commissioner at Coldfoot, Alaska, sixty miles north of the arctic circle, Who in the raising of potatoes and other vegetables for market gets over the difficulty of the dlmate by starting them in tin cans in the house. When the weather'becomes warm enough he transplants them to the open. Mr. Howard's market garden is the most 'successful to be found north of the arctic circle. He protects his young cabbages from frost on -cold nights by.covering them with beer bottles, the bottoms and necks of which have been knocked off. In these “Jackets,” as he calls them, they flourish, and by June 10, when they have grown sufficiently to fill tbd bottles, they are uncovered. In the first week of September they art harvested. In central Florida pineapples are largely grown nowadays under sheds of lattice. These Sheds, elevated on posts at a height of about seven feet from the ground usually, In some instances cover as much as ten acres of land. Their main objeet is to protect the growing fruit against frost though it Is claimed that pineapples raised under them are more delicate in texture add of superior flavor. In market gardens near Boston melons are grown in slings so that they will ripen evenly. Muskmelons are grown on arbors, each fruit being supported by a piece of board about a foot Square, on which it is turned every day or two. Strawberries are grown in pots in greenhouses, the clusters of fruit being supported by wires, so that they shall not touch the earth. Fattening Place For Chickens. Every poultry raiser knows what a feed hopper Is and how it saves a waste of feed. It may be made of wood, but galvanized iron (No. 26> is better. Such a one ns is shown in the illustration will hold about sixty pounds of meal or 100 pounds of grain. The hopper may be divided into three compartments for different kinds of feed. It should be hung up by hooks,

so that tho bottom will be about five Inches above the floor A platform underneath on which the fowls may stand while feeding should go with the hopper. This prevents litter from being scratched into the hopper. The sloping cover of the hopper prevents It being used by chickens for a roost. The total cost of .construction for this IS about $4. A grit hopper, made of the same material, hemmed In about the edges with wire, can be used for grit, shell and charcoal. Dairy Figure*. The dairy population *ef the United State* is about 21*000,000. or one cow to every fire people. The average yield, according to official figures, Is enly about 3,500. pounds a year, or. roughly, five quarta a day an the average. It Is figured ttatt each pepaon la the country eats about twenty pounds of butter each year. Very little batter la Imported.

A SELF FEEDING HOPPED.