CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 



FUR FARMING OF MUSKRATS 



What is claimed by some national fur farm publica- 

 tions of this country as "undoubtedly the largest 

 individual muskrat farming concern in the world" is 

 the Mount Forest Fur Farm, located at Mount Forest, Mich- 

 igan, with offices in Detroit. This concern has al:o purchased 

 large areas of Louisiana marshland for 'rat ranching. The 

 general manager and originator of this fur farm, Milton S. 

 Bangs, has furnished the data that follows regarding the 

 methods practiced in the pen raising of muskrats on a 

 purely commercial basis at his establishment. A personal 

 visit made by the author to this fur farm in May, 1928, 

 indicated that this concern does all its officers claim for it. 



The breeding enclosures now functioning at the Mount 

 Forest Farm prove to be a marked and radical departure 

 from any other enclosure that has been used for fur farm- 

 ing, and it seems best, therefore, to recite the different 

 retaining pens tried and rejected for what was considered 

 by Mr. Bangs and his partner and farm manager, Donald 

 Campbell, as the ultimate and most efficacious for the pur- 

 poses of their business. 



The Mount Forest Fur Farm Methods 



"Our first enclosures were of ordinary wire mesh," ex- 

 plained Mr. Bangs, "but we found that the muskrats, ani- 

 mated by their instinct for the wilds, would continually 

 endeavor to get out of the pens, and through their ceaseless 

 wanderings up and down the wire sides of the pens would 

 scratch their noses and bodies and wear them sore. These 

 wounds became infected and we were constantly cleaning 

 the abrasions with antiseptics and painting them with a 

 preparation known to all druggists as 'new skin,' some- 

 thing all fur farmers should keep on their place. 



"This constant attempt to force themselves through the 

 wires of the cages was not only of serious consequence to 



