There are not less than 30,000 domesticated reindeer in Alaska today, according to estimates of the Department of Agriculture. This means that the reindeer industry is by far the largest agricultural proposition in Alaska at this time, and more stringent government measures should be taken to prevent the rapid destruction of these animals. The industry under scientific management should develop rapidly, according to experts, and the present herds from a very promising basis upon which a great industry may be built.
It appears that there have been instances of cross-breeding domesticated reindeer and the native wild caribou. It is thought that the blood of the latter could be used to good advantage in building up the reindeer hers. At present the domesticated deer seem to decrease in size and otherwise degenerate because of the lack of careful selection of breeding animals. The caribou are superior in size and vigor, but are not of so wild a nature as to make the domestication impracticable.
That portion of Alaska which offers the fewest other agricultural opportunities is the region best suited to the reindeer. So the industry may be developed without encroaching on other lines of farming. The existence of white reindeer-moss in all the Arctic region of Alaska permits the occupancy of vast regions that would otherwise be uninhabitable.
