The Klondike Gold Rush and the Northwest Farmer

The wonderful and startling character of the gold discoveries in Alaska arouses the probability of such an emigration to that country as to require to sustain it all of the available surplus farm products of the Northwest. Already the boom has set in, and steamers loaded to the water line with passengers are leaving the Sound ports for the new Eldorado. Although but a few days have passed since the steamer Portland arrived with its cargo of lucky miners and news of the great strikes, we are receiving intelligence from every port of North America to the effect that parties are starting to Alaska. These people will have to be fed—they will all be consumers of the staple agricultural products. It is a fortunate turn of events for the producer, and though there will not be the element of chance in his line and possibility of his suddenly unearthing wealth, yet there is a certainty that the influx of the thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of gold hunters will have the effect of raising prices on everything he puts on the market to such an extent that there will be some mighty nice clean profits realized.