WITH UNCLE SAM'S "JAT'CF^MI STS Friday, Deceraber 19, 1930. 



HOT FCR PUHLIOATIOH 



SPMIITG TIMS ; 10 ilinutes. 



AirxIOUIICIIlElJI ; Qui- TJilds Man has again been \\dth Uncle Sai-i's Naturalists 

 of the United States Dffiartment of Agric-ulture. To listen to his talk 

 about reindeer and the like, he has evidently come awa^' filled with the 



Christmas spirit \.'ell, Mr. Wildsnan, go aliead Let the slei/^h bells 



jingle J 



VTe've had a bi^ arsumont at our house. 



Son insist?. Spjita Glaus is going to use an airplane this year. 

 I stick to the old sleigh. 



Of course, I liaven't conr.iitted m^'self as to whether or not he is 

 coming at all, but wli;'- would he give up reindeer now? From what Dr. W. 

 £• Bell tells me the prospects arc bright for bi, ger ;nd better reindeer. 

 In fact, the United States Biological Survoy now has produced them. 

 Dr. Bell is in charge of that bureau's division of biological investigations, 

 and he says that they are nov/ about ready to put some of those improved 

 reindeer into the r':,galar domestic herds of Alaslr.a, to further build up 

 that big livestock i.idustry in our northern territory. 



Up to now, the experiments have been conducted chiefly on Nunivak 

 Island, in the Bori.ic, Sea, off the 'Test Coast of Alaska, \7ild caribou 

 bulls have been crossed with reindeer Does to produce crossbred animals, 

 which weigh more, arc more vigorous, and are b«?tter meat animals thcji the 

 regular reindeer. 



Of course, tli.; caribou arc close kin to tlic- reindeer. They axe 

 native of o\\r North country. There were no reindeer in Alaska until 3^ 

 years ago. In a few years, 1,280 reindeer were brought from Siberia to 

 Alaska, as a means of increasing the dwindling meat supply of the natives 

 auid lifting our Sslzimos from hunters to herders. llo\-/ there are about 

 a million reindeer in the territory, makin.; avrala"ble hundreds of thous.onds 

 of pounds of reindeer meat for the people of Alaska, and some of it reaches 



