FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 47 
ever, disagree with this common opinion and say that one year and 
eight months is the proper age at which to kill them. 
The fox when young, has less silver than in later years and this 
is an advantage in the present market, silver skins being more common 
than pure black. It is hardly necessary to remark that no fox should 
be slaughtered without a careful examination of his coat, and, if it be 
light and thin and the fox only a pup, he should be spared for a year 
in order to improve his condition if possible. 
Considerable care should be taken against injury to the coat dur- 
ing the months previous to killing. They should not be allowed to lie 
on damp places and thus have tne guard hair frozen into the ground 
or snow and broken. Smooth, large passageways should be provided. 
Fleas or mange or other skin affections or parasites should be prevented 
as they would induce scratching and thus wear off the hair on the 
shoulders and hips. 
It is claimed that heavy feeding of nutritious laxative food like 
molasses, patent food preparations, boiled barley or oats, will fatten the 
fox and improve the gloss of its coat. Some of the costliest skins 
marketed were taken off foxes with one quarter of an inch of fat over 
their ribs. This is contrary to a popular, but incorrect, impression that 
starving makes the hair longer and improves the coat. 
Foxes are killed by crushing the chest walls. They are placed on 
their sides, and the slaughterer places the sole of his foot immediately 
behind the foreleg and bears down with his full weight. They are also 
killed by forcing the head back until the neck breaks. There is a 
danger that the sheen of the overhair—especially the silver hairs—may 
be somewhat injured with blood and dirt so that clean quarters and 
methods of killing are essential. 
The information available indicates tbat the adoption of some more 
humane method of killing, such as the use of chloroform or ether, would 
not injure the fur and, at the same time, be far more merciful. A small 
padded box with a wad of cotton batting in one of the upper corners 
upon which chloroform could be dropped from a hole in the corner of the 
box would be all that would be required. As soon as it is dead, the ani- 
mal should be removed from the chamber. In the case of such a valuable 
animal as this, it is not too much to expect of ranchers that they pro- 
vide one of these inexpensive lethal chambers. 
Poisons that are available are: cyanide of potassium, prussic acid, 
strychnine and white arsenic. A very small quantity of cyanide or of 
prussic acid will kill the fox instantly, but, as these drugs are exces- 
sively poisonous, it is dangerous to have them in one’s possession unless 
