22 BULLETIN 50, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGEICULTUKE. 
producing' region, and from these ports there is water transportation 
to Alaska. For the present, and probably for a number of years to 
come, small grain crops will be more profitably grown for stock 
forage, either cut green for hay or silage or ripened, than for grain 
to be milled into flour. 
In southeastern Alaska, lack of clear weather will prevent the 
proper ripening of grain or curing of hay. even if level land were 
available for growing such crops on a commercial scale. 
The bench on the north bank of the Chitina. with its southern ex- 
posure, is perhaps the most favored portion of the Copper River 
drainage for grain growing. The Knik district is the best so far 
tested in the Cook Inlet region. While the United States Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station was maintained at Kenai. on the west >ide 
of Kenai Peninsula, grains were grown at the station, but not always 
Avithout damage by frost. A large area of land on the west side of 
the peninsula is available for grain and other lines of farming so far 
as quality of soil and topography would determine. The Susitna 
Valley contains a great area of land now covered with spruce and 
poplar forests, which if cleared and dried out would be available for 
tillage crops and probably grains, but no investigation has been made 
as to the prevalence of permanently frozen ground under the present 
growth of vegetation or to what extent the frost line will lower when 
the land is cleared. 
THE REINDEER INDUSTRY OF ALASKA. 
The reindeer industry is by far the largest agricultural proposition 
in Alaska at this time and it is calling insistently for consideration. 
The native caribou, or wild reindeer, still exi>t in large migratory 
herds on the Arctic Slope, in the Yukon drainage, and in the Alaskan 
Mountains. These animals are unquestionably of large economic 
importance to Alaska, and more stringent Government measures 
should be taken to prevent their rapid destruction, that they may be 
used as a basis upon which to build a great industry. 
Dr. David E. Lantz. in Bulletin 36. Biological Survey. United 
States Department of Agriculture, speaks of several species and local 
races of the caribou, or reindeer, that inhabit the northern part 
of Xorth America. These he divides into two groups according 
to habitat. The more northern group, which ranges beyond the 
forests, is represented by the barren-ground caribou (Rangifer arcti- 
cus) . The second group inhabits the forested area south of the other, 
and is represented by the Avoodland caribou (Rangifer caribou). 
They differ but little in habits and general appearance, Dr. Lantz 
says, from the Old World reindeer, although no attempts to domesti- 
cate the American reindeer seem to have been made. 
