Evening star., 1924-10-15

reindeer. The question of Alaskan
starvation was thus successfully
solved.
But soon another phase of Alaska
reindeer raising developed, of which
the general slaughtering this Fall
| marks its elimination. In recent
years ownership of most of the ami
mails has passed out of the hands of
the simple Eskimo into the pos
session of large corporations. Four
packing companies have entered the
| field and one of these companies now
owns $4,000 of the $1,000 total rein
deer in Alaska. Conservauonists ex-
press fear that unless active Govern
! ment restrictions are put about the
industry, it will not be many years
before the original object of the mis-
sionary will be lost and the Eski-
mo will again be facing the over
competition of too much civilization,
like that which controls the salmon
| fisheries. Who, then, they ask, will
| find new food source for the native
ESkimos?
Two years ago Congress made an
the reindeer, through the Biological
Survey of the Department of Agri-
culture. This work covers the study
| of diseases and parasites which in
feet the deer and better breeding and
handling of the animals
The crude practice has been to
| drive the reindeer all day over the
trail, hitched to sleds, or ridden, and
| then at night while the drivers slept
the reindeer would be turned out to
Craze upon the wild moss. The
hungry beasts were given no time to
sleep and recuperate and within a few
days of such driving they Succumbed
to exhaustion. The Biological Sur
vey experts are trying to impress
upon the drivers the necessity of
better feeding by supplying gathered
| moss or grain and giving the tired
animals a chance to sleep.
No cultivated pasture is ever needed
, for reindeer. They eat moss which
grows in abundance and which is not
| relishedF by other live stock. That
| is their Winter pasturage, which they
] dig from beneath the snow. In Sum
! mer they eat the lush grasses of the
valleys. 1t is now part of the Off
cials duty to guard against the dan
ger of owners allowing great herds
| to feed upon the moss in Summer, in
stead Of conserving 1t for Winter
pasturage. If a moss field be over
consumed 1t cannot be restored within
! 25 or 80 years. The Government is
now dividing the pasturage into fixed
6iiotIncHtS, with StTlCI regulations TO
preserve the lichen for Winter use
| only.
The reindeer are small, but they
can haul three times as much as an
equal number of dogs, and, when
butchered, they dress out about 155
pounds of venison, with none of the
gamey favor of wild animals. 1t is
| the purpose of the Biological Survey
to cross reindeer with the large do
mesticated caribou, producing q much
heavier, stronger animal, just as the
| beef animal has been produced by
selective breeding. The horse was
once no larger than a dog, and GEN.
turies have produced the present
steed. -
The reindeer is never Thoroughly
broken to harness. Unlike David
Harum's horse, 1t is not true of the
| reindeer that "a woman can drive it
| as well as a man." 1t is timid and
has a habit Of suddenly 1eaping from
the trail and facing about toward the
| driver, when 1t must be taken in hand
and gently set right upon the path.
| The does have been milked for but
| ter, but they yield only a teacupful
at a milking-if the milker survives
the strain. But the reindeer is equal
to three dogs, Is better eating than
| a horse, and Is swifter than an OK
and nimbfer in climbing steep trail
than ayoke Of oxen. 1t therefore has
q mission to perform, both in Alaska
| and upon the tables Of the feasting
American.
J. Copyright. 1924. by Psui Y. osaas&s