OCR Text |
Show ; REINDEER MEAT. it, is predicted that within fifty years 2,000,000 head of reindeer will be annually sent to market to supplement supple-ment the beef, mutton and pork supply. sup-ply. This vast number, it is said, can be supplied every year without diminishing dimin-ishing the stock. Iteindeer meat is now accounted a delicacy and brings from $1 to $1.25 a pound in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. At this time the supply is limited, but contemplated propagation plans call for protection and caro and the source is constantly growing larger. Most of the carcasses now brought to our Pacific ports come by way of Nome from various northern Alaska points. Twenty-seven years ago the Alaska reindeer herd was placed under the control of the United States bureau of education. The animals now number about 140,000. It is thought the 2,000,-000 2,000,-000 mark will be reached ia twenty years and the 20,000,000 mark in fifty years. At the end of half a century tho herds are expected to produce 430,000,-000 430,000,-000 pounds of meat each year and yet leave the "principal" intact. In western Alaska there are 400,000 square miles of almost treeless country, admirably adapted to reindeer, affording afford-ing plenty of pasturage in the form of moss and other vegetation suited to the needs of the animals. The natural habitat of tho reindeer extends through northern Asia, Europe and America, completely around the Arctic circle; but the two native Alaskan Alas-kan species, which are called "caribou," "cari-bou," have never been domesticated. 'Thereforq it' was necessary to import Siberian reindeer, the first of which arrived at Port Clarence in 1S92. |