298 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



What harm can be done by overtrapping or "skinning" 

 was startlingly brought out by the experience of the Mc- 

 Faddin interests, with holdings below Port Arthur, Texas, 

 where 160,000 muskrats were taken on 9,000 acres the 

 1924-25 season. This high production on this particular 

 area was caused by drought conditions existing in south- 

 eastern Texas the summer of 1924, and the Keith Lake 

 section, where the trapping was done, was the last section 

 to go dry. As a result, muskrats migrated to this wet spot 

 in unbelievable numbers. The following season no trapping 

 was done on this tract, for the simple reason there were no 

 musk rats there to be taken ! 



By giving this land a rest and trapping lightly, C. E. 

 Ward, who directs the operations of the McFaddin interests, 

 built these acres back to normal production and on the total 

 holdings harvested a 100,000 pelt crop in the 1927-28 sea- 

 son. 



What Is Rat Ranching? 



There is as much difference between a fur farm and a 

 'rat ranch as there is between a New England 40-acre gar- 

 den truck farm and a Texas beef baron's cattle ranch. On 

 one, the ground is being constantly fertilized, plowed, culti- 

 vated, and worked, and a bare living scratched from the 

 holdings. On the other hand, the beef baron secures vast 

 stretches of country, turns loose his cattle, lets them prop- 

 agate unaided by man, does no plowing, cultivating or 

 planting, and, ever so often, has his round-up of the nat- 

 ural increase, sells his beef, pockets his fat earnings and 

 spends the intervening time between one round-up and the 

 other in luxury and amusements. 



So with muskrat farming vs. 'rat ranching. Both can 

 be done, but one is a big money-making proposition, if 

 successful, and the other is not. To be a 'rat rancher proper 

 marsh territory is needed. Proper capital must be sub- 

 scribed. Proper food plants must grow on the property, 

 or they must be planted if lacking. Muskrats must be in- 

 troduced if they are not already present. That muskrats 

 can be introduced in localities where they have never been 



