FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 37 
eat himself, and some grass, minnows, mice, crickets and berries 
besides. 
The flesh diet of foxes is horse meat, calves, butcher scraps 
tig (livers, hearts, heads, etc.), fish (both cured and fresh), 
rabbits, groundhogs, mice, rats, birds, squirrels, lobster bodies 
and old cattle and sheep. The flesh is usually fed raw, but some 
feeders parboil it. It is salted slightly when parboiled, only a small 
amount of salt being used. Frequently carcasses are salted down in 
casks, and, when required for food, a portion is freshened by placing it 
in running water for a day or two. Some of the finest foxes seen were 
fed with this kind of food and seemed to be in very thrifty condition, 
possibly because of being free from worms. Some ranches have cold 
storage plants, and keep the meat packed with ice. No storage houses 
similar to bait-freezers are used as yet, but the bait-freezer at Rustico, 
P.E.1., might serve as a model for such a house. Neither has any 
- mechanical refrigeration of any kind been attempted. 
Old cattle and horses are kept on the hoof and slaughtered from 
time to time as required. As foxes have been known to die of tuber- 
culosis, these should be subjected to the tuberculin test or, at least, 
examined for tubercules after killing. The amount of meat fed should 
be about one-fourth pound a day and this amount should decreased 
if any of it is buried by the fox. 
The non-flesh food consists of biscuits, yeast bread, hoe 
Ror heen bread, vegetables, porridge, grass, berries, apples, milk and 
eggs. Patent dog biscuits are fed with good results, one 
ranch using only Spratt’s biscuits, with milk and water, as food. The 
best ordinary biscuit is the plain hardtack. It is probable that hard- 
baked non-yeast bread is better than leavened bread. Bread is more 
relished if grease drippings are poured upon it. Tallow has been used 
with good success as a butter on hoe bread. 
Any rations are liable to fail unless the food is served properly. 
The dishes should be frequently scalded and scrubbed and kept scrupu- 
lously clean. The water vessel should be fastened to the fence with 
vire hooks so that the foxes cannot climb over it. The food must be 
withheld when foxes are observed to bury or hide it. In frosty wea- 
ther in April or May, frozen meat would kill the young foxes, so it 
is necessary to feed it warm or parboiled in such weather. If one 
fox dominates the other and takes too large a share of the food, a large 
quantity must be supplied at night and removed when both have had 
enough, e.g., a cow’s head may be left in a pen for several days to 
furnish the flesh diet. 
