ALASKAN EXPEEIENCE IN STOCK EAISING. 23 



sheep raising in Alaska which need careful consideration. It is the 

 general opinion in Kadiak that in an ordinary winter sheep can not 

 safely be left without care after the beginning of January. Indeed, 

 many would place the time a month or six weeks earlier. New grass 

 never appears before May 15, and often not until June 1. Therefore, 

 under the best of conditions, sheep will need four and a half months 

 of feeding and shelter. The superintendent of the Frye-Bruhn ranch, 

 after one winter's experience, thinks that feed and shelter should be 

 given for a longer period than that mentioned. 



Another serious difficulty lies in the lateness of the lambing season. 

 It is generally agreed that lambing should not take place before 

 June 1. The lambs will need shelter and feed by December 1 or 

 earlier, unless one takes serious chances of losing many. 



Whether sheep raising could be made profitable at present under 

 such conditions remains to be demonstrated. The mere fact that 

 sheep in small numbers have wintered without care is no proof that 

 successful sheep husbandry can thus be carried on, nor even that one 

 or two months' feeding will suffice. The risks involved in such a 

 procedure are too great to warrant a careful stock raiser in taking 

 any chances. 



Destructive wild animals are no menace to sheep raising on the 

 islands. Eagles may destroy a few lambs, but these birds are easily 

 exterminated. Kadiak bears are too scarce and too easily destroyed 

 to merit consideration. On the mainland, however, both wolves and 

 brown bears may prove troublesome. 



In the light of present knowledge one is safe in saying that sheep 

 can be raised on the Alaska coast if adults are given five months' feed 

 and shelter and the lambs a month more — this with the ordinary 

 sheep of the western ranges. AVith more hardy breeds better adapted 

 to the conditions the outlook for success Avould be better. It need 

 hardly be said that extreme caution should be taken to import only 

 perfectly healthy aninuils. ^The great mortality caused by scab and 

 the great danger of such a disease as foot-rot in a damp climate de- 

 mand that extreme care be taken not to introduce these diseases. 



Cattle.— C'dttle have been raised at nearly all the Alaskan coast 

 settlements ever since the Russian occupation. Some of the original 

 stock, according to local tradition, is still represented in the band of 

 cattle at Nannilchuck. These are small animals, but said to be very 

 hardy. Nearly all of the cattle kept near the villages are milch cows, 

 mostly grades, but a number of Holsteins and Jerseys were seen. 

 When owned by Avhites the animals are given shelter and feed for 

 about five months. When they belong to the natives they are forced 

 to exist through the winter with little or no care, eking out an exist- 

 ence by feeding on browse and seaweeds. No accurate data could be 



