CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 



GRADING FUR PELTS 



ON ACCOUNT of confusion among many trappers, fur 

 merchants and conservation officials and agents as 

 to the meaning of the terms "prime" and "un- 

 prime" and "legal" and "illegal" when applied to raw 

 pelts of fur animals, the biological survey of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture has made the following 

 explanation of these terms, which is out of place at the 

 beginning of a chapter on the grading of fur pelts. 



Primeness is determined by examining the skin side, 

 which, if the pelt is fresh, should be fairly white or cream 

 colored, and show some "life" when handled. Black or 

 blue spots in the skin indicate that it is unprime. Skins 

 turn yellow with age and lose their firmness. The outside 

 of a prime fur should be perfectly and evenly furred all 

 over, both on the back and on the belly, with the fur 

 reasonably long, lustrous and silky. There should be no 

 rubbed spots or defects. A trapper cannot tell whether 

 a pelt is prime before he skins the animal, however, for 

 the outside appearance is not conclusive evidence in the 

 matter. 



"Legal" and "Illegal," on the other hand, relate spe- 

 cifically to furs taken in open and close seasons — purely a 

 question of date. If a fur animal is trapped after the 

 opening of the season, then it is taken legally, and the 

 skin is termed legal, although on examination it may be 

 unprime. An animal caught after the close season, on 

 the other hand, regardless of the condition of the pelt, 

 is taken illegally. 



A frequent defect in the fur laws of the various states, 

 and this was long the case in Louisiana, is that the open 

 season is so long as to permit trapping before the pelts 

 are prime in fall and after breeding is in progress in 

 the spring. The only application, then, that "unprime" 

 could have to the law would be to unprime skins taken 

 in close season. These, as well as all others taken in close 

 season, would be illegal. 



