Il. Early Attempts to Domesticate the Fox 
T would he futile to record all the early attempts to rear foxes in 
captivity and note has, therefore, been made of the experiences of 
only a few breeders at widely separated points. The experimenters, in 
most cases, were wholly unacquainted with the experience of others. 
It has been customary for trapper-farmers to keep alive foxes 
caught in warm weather until the fur is prime. Thus, young foxes 
captured in July are kept until December before being killed. The 
earliest authentic record obtained of rearing young from foxes kept in 
captivity comes from Tignish, P.H.1., where Benjamin Haywood reared 
several litters some thirty-five years ago; but they were destroyed by 
the parent foxes because they were not kept in seclusion and quiet. 
Doubtless there have been, in earlier years, numerous cases that 
were as successful as Mr. Haywood’s, but it is interesting to record this 
experiment because he was a near neighbour of the men who finally 
achieved the greatest success in the commercial fox-breeding industry. 
Several furriers in Quebec have been connected with breeding ex- 
periments. Messrs. Paquet Bros. had a small ranch once at St. Joseph- 
d’Alma near the head of the Saguenay, which they finally sold. Revillon 
Fréres were interested in a ranch on the North shore of tne gulf of 
St. Lawrence a dozen years ago, but finally abandoned the experiment 
believing that fox raising was destined to fail. Holt, Renfrew & Co. 
have a ranch near Quebec and have reared a litter of silver foxes from 
a pair of exhibition foxes in their menagerie at Montmorency Falls. 
In Ontario, Rev. George Clark, of St. Catharines, an experienced 
breeder of pheasants, bred a litter of reds from a pet pair of wild foxes 
in 1905. Two ranches were started about 1906, near North Sydney, 
and on the Lingan Road near Sydney, N.S., respectively; but, after 
several years they failed to maintain the foxes in breeding condition. 
These were later sold to Bruce, Cummings, McConnell and others, who 
have proved to be successful ranchers. 
Excellent success in breeding the fox has been achieved by 
Sanaa Mr. Johann Beetz, at Piastre Baie, North shore, Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, and Mr. T. L. Burrowman, of Wyoming, 
Ontario. The former is the scion of a wealthy Brussels family, and 
his roving spirit led him to Labrador and Alaska on hunting expedi- 
tions. He finally settled at Piastre Baie, about 1898, and attempted fox 
ranching with a pair of silver foxes brought from Alaska. There were 
trees at several points in the neighbourhood, and at some ten or twelve 
wooded spots, a hundred or more rods from his dwelling, he kept his 
pens, having two females and one male at each point. He adopted the 
