SKUNK BREEDING 



With Notes on Mutations and Their Genetic Behavior^ 



J. A. Detlefsen 



Laboratory of Genetics, Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 F. M. HOLBROOK 



Skunk Development Bureau, White Plains, N. Y. 



THE fur of many species of mam- 

 mals has been a source of cloth- 

 ing, comfort, and ornament to 

 man since prehistoric times. Man, 

 however, has been encroaching upon 

 the native haunts of the fur bearers. 

 Deforestation, draining of marshes, 

 lax game laws, and close trapping 

 have followed our increases in popula- 

 tion. The result has been a marked 

 decrease in the available fur supply. 

 Dearborn^ states that "in the State of 

 Wisconsin, trappers in 1917 took over 

 800,000 muskrats; in 1918 they took 

 less than 300,000; and in 1919 only 

 about 150,000. These decreases oc- 

 curred in spite of the fact that there 

 was an increase of 10 percent each 

 year over the previous year in the 

 number of trapper's licenses sold." 

 The case illustrates in a general way 

 the situation with respect to many 

 fur bearing mammals. When the 

 human population was thinly scattered 

 and economic supplies were plentiful, 

 man could be lavish with his resources, 

 but a rapidly growing population has 

 changed these conditions and compelled 

 man to use more intensive methods in 

 the production of food and clothing. 



Some efforts have been made to con- 

 serve and regulate the fur supply 

 through fur farming. Fur farming 

 means, in a narrow sense, breeding so- 

 called wild animals in captivity or in a 

 state of semi-domestication. Up to the 

 present, most attention has been 

 directed toward the black, blue, red, 

 gray, and silver fox, the skunk, mink, 

 muskrat, marten, fisher, otter, raccoon 

 and opossum. Of these the fox, 

 skunk, and muskrat can be farmed 



most profitably under the proper 

 conditions. 



THE UNITED STATES NOW IMPORTS RAW 

 SKINS 



The extent of the fur trade in the 

 United States is not generally a matter 

 of common knowledge. In earliest 

 colonial times trapping and fur trading 

 formed a most important item in the 

 commercial history of America. For 

 300 years America exported raw furs 

 to Europe, where they were dressed, 

 dyed, and manufactured. In the last 

 decade a decided change has taken 

 place, for dressing, and manufacturing 

 are now being conducted on a large 

 scale in the United States, particularly 

 in and near New York City, where, (as 

 Dearborn^ states in his pamphlet on 

 "The Maintenance of the Fur Supply") 

 "in 1918 there were about 60 dressing 

 and dyeing plants, 500 dealers, 1200 

 manufacturers, 18,000 operatives, and 

 an investment estimated at between 

 $200,000,000 and $300,000,000." We 

 are now (1919) importing annually 

 raw skins valued at $69,000,000, while 

 the imported dressed skins are worth 

 only $4,000,000. This means that 

 America is in a position to prepare and 

 use all the skins we produce and can 

 even import skins. One important 

 source of our native fur supply is the 

 musteline family, including the skunk, 

 mink, badger, marten, sable, otter, 

 ermine, and fisher. The U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture states in Farmers' 

 Bulletin 587 that skunk pelts alone 

 bring to United States trappers about 

 $3,000,000 annually. The annual out- 

 put in skins is about 2,000,000. 



1 Paper No. 18, from the Genetics Laboratory, Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. 



2 Dearborn, N., 1920, Circular 135, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 ^ Loc. cit. 



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