FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 25 
RANCHING PRACTICE 
While it is legal to keep fur-bearers in captivity in those provinces 
in Canada where there is no close season provided for them, it is unlaw- 
ful in most provinces to keep protected fur-bearers during the close 
season. It is also unlawful to catch fur-bearers for ranching purposes 
in the close season in all provinces except Prince Edward Island. 
Apparently it is lawful in Saskatchewan and Quebec to hold the animals 
during the close season, provided they have been caught in the open 
season, or brought from a point outside the province. In all the other 
provinces, no ranching can be legally done without a permit from the 
provincial department charged with the care of game and fur-bearing 
animals. 
The various provincial authorities can encourage fur-farming by 
amending their game laws so as to allow the issue of permits to residents 
to catch fur-bearers and hold them in captivity for breeding purposes at 
any season. Requiring annual returns of production would prevent any 
abuse of this privilege. 
If foundation stock of excellent quality has been secured, 
the next most important question to be considered is the 
selection of a site for the ranch where the quality of the 
stock can be maintained from generation to generetion. Climatic influ- 
ences are largely responsible for the value of the coat of fur. If an abun- 
dance of good food can be secured, an animal produces the heaviest coat 
where the climate is coldest. Humidity of atmosphere must also be 
considered. Poland says that open water, such as lakes and seas, 
renders the fur thicker, probably owing to the high percentage of humid- 
ity in the atmosphere. Exposed sea coasts and exposed prairies, he 
says, render fur coarse, while woods and forests cause it to be finer. 
For instance the timber or forest wolves have finer fur than those living 
on the exposed prairie. Mr. Wesley Frost, United States consul at 
Charlottetown, in a report to his government in 1912, says: “The 
temperature and humidity on the island (Prince Edward) are a happy 
mean between the intense cold and the moist, dull weather of New- 
foundland, Labrador and Alaska, and the warmer, drier weather of 
regions farther south. The far northern furs are said to be coarse and 
shaggy, while the furs pevauced in the northern states of our own coun- 
try are light and thin.” It is also said that the absence of limestone 
in Prince Edward Island and Westmorland county, New Brunswick, 
gives a perfect soil for foxes to burrow in and is beneficial to the fan 
covering. As some excellent foxes never burrow at all, the ranchers 
carefully stopping up the holes whenever a start is made, there can- 
not be much ground for this assumption. 
Location of 
the Ranch 
