406 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



to dry their furs, the inexpensive and more efficacious wire 

 stretchers have superseded wood, especially in the curing 

 of muskrat skins. Wire stretchers can be adjusted quickly 

 for any sized pelt and a space is provided for a circulation 

 of air between fur sides, thus hastening the curing. When 

 the pelt has dried sufficiently the wire frame needs only to 

 be compressed and the dried skin slips off without sticking, 

 tearing or otherwise damaging the hide. 



Large cased skins, such as the otter's, still have to be 

 cured on boards, for wire frames will not permit a proper 

 stretching, and provision must be made for nailing the 

 split tail skin out flat. In Louisiana most of the mink skins 

 are still dried on boards, as are some larger skunk skins. 

 In placing a pelt on any kind of a stretcher the sides of the 

 skin must fit over the edges of the stretcher. 



Some trappers make a mistake in overstretching a fur 

 animal's skin; the reason for so doing is an endeavor to 

 try and make a "large" out of a "medium" or a medium 

 out of a "small". This practice usually does more damage 

 than good, as overstretching causes a skin to become thin 

 and it will then fall off in grading when the fur buyer 

 comes around. 



Storing Cured Pelts 



When a pelt has been cured, and three or four days in 

 proper dry weather is usually sufficient time for this neces- 

 sary operation, the skins should be removed from the 

 stretchers, strung on wires or cord and placed out of reach 

 of rats and mice. The stringing of pelts should be done 

 so that they do not lie too closely packed, for contact some- 

 times leads to "sweating," which is very damaging. 



In packing furs for shipment they should be placed pelt 

 to pelt, never pelt to fur, and wrapped securely in burlap 

 sacking. Before wrapping, the owner's name and address 

 and number and kinds of skins should be written on a tag 

 and securely affixed to the skins, and again the wrapped 

 package should carry his name, address and an itemized list 

 of the contents on a tag. 



