MEAT PROM ALASKA

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 28, 1 February 1919, Page 10

MEAT PROM ALASKA

Tho prudent and economical citizen whom war. has deprived of his sirloin steak will be interested in fihe statement that in another, year or two Alaskan reindeer meat wiEL be coming into the market in sufficient quantities to give' ; the public a chance to partake of choice cuts at reasonable prices, states the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Alaska's present reindeer hetds number 200,000 head, and they ordinarily double in number every three years; About 10 per cent, annually are surplus males that can be marketed without impairing the future supply. A shipload of the meat reached Seattle this summer from Nome, and it found ready favour in the market. The deer, fattened on the Northern grass and mosses, were in prime condition, and averaged about 1501bs dressed.

TheiFederal GOTemmenfc-pafciie Northern Eskimo in the way of financial" independence when it started him in reindeer breeding twenty years ago. The natives now control the majority of the herds, and1 private capital is also being attracted to the business. . In the years to come it should foe one of Alaska's important industries.

Inspired by the example of Uncle Sam, Canada is now x encouraging reindeer breeding in its Northwest territories, and) on the Crown lands of the Western provinces. An Indiana company has recently applied for and been granted1 a permit for the use of certain territorial grazing lands for thirty years. Private capital is invited to invest in the industry, which is regarded as an important feature of Canada's future development. The Western ranges long ago ceased to furnish any important source of beef supply in the United States, d-oe to the settlement of these-districts by fanners and the utilising of the ranges for growing crops. Canada and Alaska have vast tracts of land suitable for the redndeerjndustry, but too far north for cattle to do well. In this situation reindeer ranches promise profitable earnings, as weH as some relief to the public in market prices.