MEAT FROM ALASKA

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 46

MEAT FROM ALASKA

THE REINDEER HERDS. In another year or two Alaskan reindeer meat will be coming into the market (says an American paper). Alaska's present reindeer herds 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 1501 b dressed. The Federal Government put the Northern Eskimo in the way of financail independence when it started him in reindeer breedin"- 20 yars ago. The natives now control the majority of the herds, and private capital is also being attracted to the business. In the years to come it should be one of Alaska's important industries. Inspired by the example of America, Canada is now encouraging reindeer breeding in its north-west territories, and on the Crown lands of the western provinces. An Indian company has recently applied for and been granted the use of certain territorial grazing lands for 37 \'ears_. Private capital it 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, duo to the settlement of these districts by farmers and the utilising of the ranges for growing crops. Canada and Alaska have vast tracts of land suitable for the reindeer industry, but too far north for cattle to do well. In this situation reindeer ranches promise profitable earnings, as well as some relief to the publio in market prices.