The Coolidge examiner., 1931-11-27

have adopted improved methods of sanitation
and, in some instances, have built frame houses
from imported lumber.
Between 1918 and 1925 more than 1,S75000
pounds of reindeer meat shipped to the
United States from Alaska Two hundred thou
sand pounds were shipped in 1928 while by
1925, the export had increased to 6S0O00 pounds.
The export for 1927 was expected almost to dou-
bic that of 1925, the amount depending on ship
ping facilities Reindeer meat sells in Nome for
Is TO 20 cents a pound. 1t can be delivered at
Seattle for Is cents pound and, with increased
shipments and improved methods of handling,
even this price be reduced.
While the only reindeer on this continent now
are in Alaska, and the territorys production is
restricted by pasturage to 100000 head, there
are millions of acres in Canada where ten times
as many can be fed and vast stretches in
northern Europe and Asia where reindeer have
been raised for centuries, but never on an ex-
tensive scale, where ten times as many can be
grazed as in Canada. In all, $4,000 900 reindeer
could be supported by Alaska Canada and Eu-
rasa, assuring a substantial contribution to the
worlds supply of food and utilization of what
otherwise would be waste land.
But the reindeer is not the only animal which
the government is propagating in the great
natural game preserve of Alaska. re-
cent experiment is with musk-oxen, which have
been introduced into Alaska in the hope that
they may become re-established there
In 1927 the legislature of the territory of
Alaska petitioned congress for appropriation
for establishing an experimental herd of musk
oxen at the reindeer experiment station of the
United States biological survey near Fairbanks.
Under the leadership of Representative L. J.
Dickinson of Iowa and Senator Peter Norbeck
of South Dakota, a bill providing $4,000 for
/ Al =
signed by President Hoover.
With this money the Department of Agricul-
ture went to work A herd of "a musk-oxen was
obtained in Greenland in the fall of that year,
was shipped from Greenland to Norway and
then to New York by boat. Then they were sent
by railway express from New York to Seattle
Wash, then by steamship to Seward, Alaska,
and from Seward to Fairbanks they were taken
by railroad, finally completing their long jour
ney early this year At Fairbanks they have
been placed in large enclosure where they are
under the care of men acquainted with the
peculiar problems of feeding, breeding and man.
! agement of these animals under Alaskan condi-
| tiOns.
Evidently the first musk-oxen to be captured
and transported alive from their native haunts
were taken on an island near Greenland around
! 1899. These were shipped to Norway and later
sold for exhibition at park at WOburn Eng
land. The first to reach this country were de-
| livered at New York in 1902 and were ex-
hibited at the New York Geological park. A
number of others were imported during sue
ceeding years
1t is the hope Of the biological survey of the
! Department of Agriculture that the musk-oxen
may be successfully domestcated and that their
numbers may be increased to utilize a large part
of the vast feeding resources of Alaska which
are largely wasted. If the experiment succeeds
and the musk-oXen increase, it may mean a
valuable source of supply of meat and valuable
robes as well as other products.
Musk-oxen are the Tost truly Arctic of all