The Fur Animals of Louisiana 345 



our muskrats. The fountain is filled by turning it upside 

 down and, when inverted, only water enough to fill a small 

 trough is allowed to fall from the supply. The fountain is 

 hung just high enough for the muskrats to reach and drink 

 from the trough, but adjusted carefully so they cannot get 

 in it and dirty the water. 



"Swimming water? We have none, as we have found 

 that 'dry farming' is perfectly feasible and has allowed us 

 to overcome, in our estimation, the last great obstacle in 

 pen raising muskrats." 



The Sexing Box 



On the Mount Forest Fur Farm a number of innova- 

 tions designed by Mr. Campbell, many of which have been 

 adopted and adapted by other breeding concerns, were 

 seen and examined. One of the most noteworthy inventions 

 for the practical muskrat breeders has been Donald Camp- 

 bell's "sexing box." Having learned from experience, and 

 scarred fingers, the difficulty in accurately determining the 

 sex of a mature 'rat, it became necessary to design some 

 sort of a mechanical contrivance to prevent these animals 

 from sinking their long incisors in his fingers when making 

 an examination of this character. The muskrat is vicious 

 and especially hard to hold when searching out the repro- 

 duction organs, and cannot be handled, even with gloves, 

 without bloodshed on the part of the handler. To have a 

 bloodless examination, he constructed a cone-shaped wooden 

 funnel, larger at one end than at the other. Picking a 

 muskrat up by the tail and dropping it head down into the 

 large end of the funnel, he found its parts could be ex- 

 amined without injury either to the subject or the handler. 

 This same idea has been incorporated in a galvanized ir< - 

 funnel, equipped with clips and put on the market in a 

 commercial form and under the name of "Nobite" by an 

 Indiana firm, but which was first the author of this bulletin 

 cannot say. 



The illustrations show the general form of this very 

 excellent contrivance, which can be constructed by a musk- 

 rat breeder at a slight cost and which should be on every 

 fur farmer's place. See page 230. 



