The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-02-11
SuQqestion Made That Musk Ok
Be Added to National
Bill of Fare.
VAST HERDS IN THE NORTH
Practically 4 Permanent Supply OF
Beef Assured by Oomestication OF
the Animal, According to
VilhIaimur Stefansson.

to the end that the national meat bill
supply of beef ensured. Explorer
Vilhjalmur Stefansson brought back
from the arctics a story Of great pos
sibilities in the way of meat produc-
ton. He told this story to members
of the Canadian parliament in Otta-
wa, and has also laid his facts and
conclusions before some of the Wash
ington officials. Both governments
will be asked for appropriations to ex-
tend the reindeer industry and to at
tempt the domestication of the musk
o.
As StefanssOn sees It, there are at
least a million square miles Of natur-
al grazing ground in the sub-arctics.
suited in every particular to the needs
and tastes of the northern caribou
and the still more northern musk OK.
Vast herds Of these animals. in the
wild roam over the so-called "barren
lands" Why not take them under
protection, turn their feeding ranges
into ranches and abattoirs and ship
the meat to the hungry folks down
south? The territory is Canadian,
but the hunger and high cost Of Nv-
ing are international; therefore, let
the two countries cooperate in a
scheme of conservation.
Reindeer Meat Liked.
Alaska and Labrador have proved
that the reindeer can be domesticated
into q public meat producer. Deer
meat has been shipped from Nome
and other Alaskan points to Seattle,
Minneapolis, Chicago and even to
New York, and people who have
bought it have asked for more. Stef-
ansson now suggests that the business
be taken up seriously, its herding and
ranching extended to the great
prairies Of the Canadian North. and
the supply of meat to the whole con-
tinent begun on a really commercial
basis But he ventures still farther
and urges a similar experiment with
the musk oxen.
Now, the musk OK, being peculiar.
~ arctic animal, has never before fig
ured in the American scheme of mar
ketfng. In its own country. however,
it is greatly valued ~ its meats
sake, and explorers who have eaten
musk OK roasts, up there say it is
pity that the Eskimos should have a
monopoly of so good a diet. The meat
is hardly distinguishable in taste. it
seems, from regulation beef. and in
nutritive value is quite its equal.
There is wool to be considered, too.
The average sized musk OK carries Is
pounds Of just-as-good-as-shee wool,
which it wears as a thick cold-proof
vest under a shaggy hair topcoat. In
fact, the musk OK is pretty nearly as
much sheep as cattle. It is two and
one-half or three times the size of
sheep, running about 700 pounds, and
is in that same proportion more
prolific source of raw material for
suits and socks.
Thick-set, with massive head and
short legs, the musk OK looks clumsy,
but is surprisingly nimble on its feet.
It travels usually in herds of 25 or
80, and its feed is grass, saxlfrage
plants and dwarf willows. Stefansson
points out, as an argument in favor
Of his subpolar ranching scheme, that
the musk OK needs neither to he
housed nor fed, being quite able to
fend for itself and even to protect
itself against wolves.
Provides Beef, Milk and Wool.
The habitat Of this geological non
elescript, which gives beef as tender
as a prize steers, milk as rich as
Jersey cream and wool as good as a
sleeps, is the very "top country Of
America. The herds never come
farther south than halfway down the
coast Of Hudson bay, and they do not
20 west of the Mackenzie river. On
the north they roam along the arctic
mainland coast and on the islands be-
You'd. There does not seem to be any
good reason, however, why the musk
OK could not be kept successfully
within the nearer bounds of the "bar-
rem lands" or in Alaska, where trans
portation facilities would be more
easily possible.
Nearly enough like the musk OK to
he a distant cousin, the woodland buff
falo is another denizen of the North
that may some day be made the base
Of a new meat supply. His habits are
somewhat the same as those of the
arctic OK, but the country that he in
habits is an area of wooded land at
the extreme north Of Alberta. west of
Slave river. Through the forests Of
this region roam small buffalo herds,
whose total numbers probably do not
exceed 500 head. They are the only
survivors in a natural state of the
countless bison that once covered the
western plains.