Alaska also presents excellent opportunities in its coast
districts for agriculture, most of the hardy vegetables and
cereals here yielding good crops. But a more valuable
outlook for the farmer appears to lie in the grazing
opportunities of the land. In some localities along the
south coast the grasses grow in splendid luxuriance, much of
the grass being six feet high. On the higher elevations and
in exposed places the grass is often too low for hay making
but is admirable for grazing, the cattle that eat it growing
very fat. Of these grass lands there are about 10,000 square
miles, of which more than half can be utilized.
Stock raising, then, is likely to become a leading industry,
and especially dairying, there being more meat than is
needed by the sparse population. There are admirable dairy
sites on the islands and mainland. The reindeer, recently
introduced, are likely to prove invaluable to the natives,
supplanting in great measure the dog for transportation
purposes, and supplying also food and clothing. Reindeer
milk makes excellent cheese, and in a few years there may be
deer-meat for sale outside.
Such is the story of Alaska. It occupies much the same
position on the west coast of America as Norway does on that
of Europe, but has four times as wide a habitable area as
Norway and a milder climate on its south coast lands.
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