THE AMERICAN BEAVER 



131 



the natural increase of a beaver colony 

 would yield a stated number of skins 

 annually, the chief care necessary being 

 to plant trees to provide a food supply. 

 How readily this could be done is shown 

 by the history of the beaver in the State 

 of New York, where they once al)ounded 

 and where in spite of 

 persistent trapping they 

 seem not to have been 

 wholly exterminated, al- 

 though in 1894 Mr. Rad- 

 ford finds that not more 

 than ten were left in the 

 Adirondack region. 



In 1904 the State of 

 New York appropriated 

 five hundred dollars for 

 the reintroduction of 

 beaver and with this 

 and subsequent appropri- 

 ations and the aid of pri- 

 vate contributions some 

 thirty-four animals were 

 turned loose. By 1908 

 there were about one 

 hundred and fifty ani- 

 mals in the Adirondacks 

 and since then they have 

 not only increased but 

 spread to other localities, 

 a few even being found 

 in northern New Jersey, 

 although these may have 

 been quietly introduced. 



The beaver seems 

 formerly to have been 

 found throughout the 

 greater part of North 

 America, outside the 

 tropics, or wherever food 

 and natural conditions 

 were favorable. 



Many places, including 

 several counties, have 

 been named from the 

 former occurrence of 



beaver and there are no less than fifty 

 post-ofhces in the United States and one 

 hundred lakes and streams thus desig- 

 nated besides innumerable locally known 

 beaver ponds and beaver dams. It is 

 quite possible that Beaver Dam Pond 

 near Manomet, Plymouth, may have 



I'hotooraph by Mr. C. II. Simpson 

 Beaver Dam, Maskinonge, Province of Quebec 



Photograph by Mr. W. H. Batch 

 Beaver hut on the Maine border 



