The Fur Animals of Louisiana 275 



Roll each piece of meat quickly in flour or fine cornmeal, 

 containing salt and a little black pepper, and drop in a 

 pan of hot grease. Keep it very hot, so the meat will cook 

 rapidly, without losing its juices or flavor, and serve before 

 the last traces of red have left the inside of the pieces. Let 

 the grease drain from the meat for a minute, but serve 

 quickly while hot. 



A dry stew in a covered pan with bits of bacon gives 

 excellent results. 



Cut up and broiled over the coals in a wire toaster, with 

 thin strips of bacon on top after one side is done, is an 

 excellent camp method of cooking musquash. 



The whole carcass laid on the coals of a campfire has 

 furnished many an excellent meal. 



Utilization of Muskrat Carcasses 



It has long been realized that there is a tremendous 

 economic waste in trapping muskrats. When an animal is 

 taken in the traps its pelt is skinned off and the carcass 

 thrown aside. 



In studying the particular phase of the whole trapping 

 question, from investigations and weights taken in the field, 

 it appears that 13 per cent of the gross weight constitutes 

 the pelt, which is saved for some useful purpose, but 87 

 per cent of the animal is wasted. 



What is to be done with this wastage? Is the wastage 

 of any value? Can it be commercially utilized? 



It has already been recited that the flesh of this re- 

 markable little fur animal of our marshes is fit food for 

 human consumption, but the time seems remote when it 

 will be used, as are the Maryland muskrats, for meat in 

 markets of Baltimore and Washington, D. C. 



That the millions of carcasses that go to waste annually 

 in our marshes are of value, some way, some how, some 

 where, it is very evident, but nothing has ever been done, it 

 would appear, to determine what the muskrat, sans fur, 

 contains. To obtain such information eleven muskrat car- 

 casses, skinned and with viscera removed, were turned 

 over to Cassius L. Clay, state analyst with the Bureau of 



