Prairie Red-fox 739 



This kind of farming offers two distinct fields. First: 

 the production of a new variety of some already domesticated 

 and easily multiplied animal — as cat, dog, goat, rabbit, or cow — 

 with a coat of such quality as to have a new value as fur. 



The second, the breeding, under protection, of certain 

 wild animals whose fur has already an established market 

 value. In this class are Beaver, Mink, Otter, Skunk, Marten, 

 Fisher, and Fox. 



In other words, one makes a fur-bearer of an animal 

 already domestic; the other makes domestic an animal already 

 a fur-bearer. 



The second is the only department that will be treated 

 herein. There are two ways of dealing with this; we may call 

 them the wholesale and the retail. 



The first is the instinctive choice of the beginner. He 

 usually plans to get possession of an island, a mountain valley, 

 or at least a couple of hundred acres of wild land with a high 

 fence around it. This he expects to stock with fur-bearers 

 that will increase speedily to thousands, after which he has 

 nothing to do but shovel in a few tons of offal weekly and draw 

 off a few thousand of the choicest pelts yearly. This is what 

 I call the wholesale method. It has never yet succeeded 

 with Red-foxes, nor indeed with any creature that I know of, 

 except, perhaps to some extent, the Blue-fox on the islands of 

 Alaska. 



Success in breeding any domestic animal turns on personal 

 care that can be directed and adapted to each individual, if 

 need be; which is, obliquely, a reason why the would-be fur- 

 farmer is better off with five acres than with five hundred. 

 This individual method is what I call the retail plan; it has 

 been proved a success many times. 



Fur-farming is a good chance for small capital. A man of 

 experience may put in ^i,ooo and get a remarkable percentage 

 as soon as well started. But any one who thinks he can put 

 in ^10,000 or $20,000 and do the same with little experience 

 and labour is certainly going to end in disaster. 



There is no object in breeding cheap furs. A Muskrat 



