48 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



Pennsylvania, 1,637,307 pelts, valued at $2,899,340. 

 (Estimated by Board of Game Commissioners of Penn- 

 sylvania.) 



Dominion of Canada, all provinces, 1924-25 season, 

 3,820,326. (Figures from Dominion Bureau of Statis- 

 tics, Fur Branch.) 



This brings to point, in face of the figures indicating 

 such an exceedingly large annual harvest of the animals 

 comprising the backbone of the fur trade, the question so 

 frequently asked by almost everyone — those interested in 

 the production of furs, conservationists in and out of the 

 trade, trappers and land-owners, as well as those who de- 

 rive comfort and pleasure from the wearing of the furs. 

 "Is the supply being rapidly, wastefully and insanely de- 

 pleted" and "When will, at this rate of take, the natural 

 supply of Louisiana be depleted?" 



The conservation problem, as it relates to fur-bearers, is 

 in conserving the remnants and in the State seeing that 

 only a decent annual harvesting of the mammals be per- 

 mitted so that seed stock remains and the species and the 

 industry so perpetuated. At the present time there seems 

 to be no obstacles to stop or hinder such a conservation 

 program being carried out unless the aim of, this depart- 

 ment and true conservationists interested in the perpet- 

 uation be deflected or defeated through a continuation of 

 the practice of taking unprime skins of a too long open 

 season, the disturbance of the breeding season, a contin- 

 uation of the present practice of purchasing unprime pelts 

 and the skins of immature animals and the buying of pelts 

 taken out of the legal open season for trapping by buyers 

 and the trading of them by dealers. 



In facing the fur conservation problem, Louisiana has 

 a number of facts to recognize in finding an answer. The 

 demand for furs is increasing as the population of the 

 world is growing. A number of the rarer fur mammals 

 are decreasing as the world's wilderness is being encroached 

 on by man and turned into account for other activities. 



That this presages the ultimate doom of the Carnivoria, 

 or meat-eaters, cannot be denied. On the other hand, Dame 



