The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-10
A GREAT INDUSTRY.

Most people, when they hear reindeer spoken of, will let their minds revert to their school days and think of the anil
 mals as one of the indispensables of Lap land. Kamschatka and other extreme northern countries. There they supply milk. flesh and clothing for the natives as well as serving as beasts of burden. To the inhabitants of those frozen regions the reindeer is as indispensable as the camel is to tho Arab or the horse to the inhabitants of Arabia or Barbary. The animals can live where hardly any other useful beast can sustain itself, and but for them life would be almost impossible in certain portions of Europe.
 To many readers it will be news to learn that reindeer growing is becoming a mo- table industry in the great territory of Alaska. but such Is the fact. For some years our government has been appropr-
 ating $25,0O0 year for the introduction of the Siberian reindeer into Alaska. and a recent Issue of the National Geographic
 Magazine has this bright prediction:
 
 from Siberia, If the present rate Of in- crease continues. doubling every three years-and there is no reason why it should not-within less than twenty-five years there will be at least 100000 do- mestic reindeer in Alaska This is con- servative estimate and allows for the deer that die from natural causes and for the many that will be slaughtered for food. In thirty-flve years the number may reach nearly 100000 head and Ia Cx yvfI a United States anywhere from 5ooe9o to 600 reindeer carcasses and thousands of tons of delicious hams and tongues, At no distant day. 1t may be safely pre- dicted, long reindeer trains from arctic and suparctic Alaska will roll into Seat tie and our most Western cities like the great cattle trains that now every hour | thunder into the yards of Chicago. Be fore the end of the present century Alas ka will be helping to feed the 200 GOO 600 men and women who will then be living within the present borders of the United | States.
 This may be an overbright picture, but | the facts as stated will be news to most | of our readers. we have no doubt. It is stated in the same article that there arc not less than 100000 square miles of what
 is called barren tundre in Alaska where none of the ordinary domestic animals can find living, but where the reindeer can find plenty of the long white moss upon which they feed and thrive. The
 statistics given for their increase may be l too liberal, but if we take away 50 per cent there will be left a wonderful addi- ton to the wealth of what was once looked on as practically useless section of our country. To supply draught ami
 mals for a large section of our country
 where horses, mules and oxen are useless
 for greater portion of the year would be an object well worth striving for, but
 when, to this is added the thousands of skins each year and the thousands cf
 tons of delicious hams and tongues 1t
 will he seen that the reindeer industry is | destined to be no small matter. While
 the anticipations may be somewhat on
 the rainbow order and the claims exag- 1 gerated 1t is pretty certain that there Is a
 good future for the business and not the
 least of it's advantages will be the addi- tion to the meat diet of the country.