740 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



with its fifteen-cent pelt is almost as much trouble to raise 

 as a $300 Silver-fox, therefore only the high-class fur should 

 be considered. 



What is the most valuable fur of all ? No doubt the Sea- 

 otter. But the animal is so rare that a large fortune would be 

 exhausted in getting the stock, and nothing is known of the 

 method necessary to its propagation. 



Next on the list is the Silver-fox. The Black or Silver- 

 fox is nothing but a black phase or freak of the Common-fox, 

 just as the black sheep is a colour freak of the common sheep. 

 A pair of pure Red-foxes may have a Black-fox in their litter, 

 and that Black-fox may grow up to be the parent of nothing but 

 Red-foxes, but a Red-fox will bring only a dollar or two, and 

 the Silver-fox a hundred times as much. 



The thoughts of the fur-farmer, then, are likely to turn 

 at once to the Silver-fox. The first objection usually made to 

 it is its sterility in captivity. At one time, indeed, it was said 

 that the Fox never breeds in confinement. This, however, is 

 far from the truth. Experience proves that the Fox is as 

 fertile in captivity as any other carnivore when properly 

 managed. Another popular error that is wide-spread, even 

 in books of good repute, is the idea that a Fox cannot be tamed. 

 It is highly probable that some individuals will always continue 

 wild and treacherous in captivity, but most of them respond to 

 judicious treatment, and some of them, as I have seen, become 

 as tame as cats. 



I first saw Foxes successfully managed by N. E. Skinner, 

 of Bangor, Maine. He began a fur-farm in Winnipeg in 1899. 

 But the best working out of fox-farming as a paying commercial 

 enterprise that I have seen, is at Dover, Maine, where I had 

 the privilege of inspecting the farms of E. Norton and M. F. 

 Stevens, in July, 1905. 



Stevens's enclosures were 30 feet each way and sur- 

 rounded by a mesh-wire fence 10 feet high with an 18-inch 

 overhang at the top, and sunk 3 feet into the ground. Six 

 feet would have been high enough, but at Dover they have 

 to reckon on snow-drifts 4 feet high. The overhang above 



