58 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1917. 



exist as soon as the anticipated open season began. Recommenda- 

 tions which were received in regard to the matter were practically 

 unanimous in expressing the hope that a longer period of protection 

 be given the animals. Accordingly, early in 1918 the Bureau 

 made a recommendation to the Secretary of Commerce that the 

 existing close season be extended to November 1, 1923, which was 

 approved by him on March 4, 1918. 



FUR FARMING. 



For a number of years the Bureau has published in the reports of 

 the Alaska service information in regard to fur-farming operations in 

 Alaska with the view of making a matter of record the status and 

 progress of this comparatively new business and to stimulate possibly 

 the efforts of individuals engaged in this work through a formal recog- 

 nition of their activities. The Bureau has no jurisdiction over the 

 fur-farming business aside from seeing that the law and the regula- 

 tions promulgated by authority thereof are enforced. The law, aside 

 from matters pertaining to the fur-seal fisheries, is concerned wholly 

 with acts which involve or follow the killing of fur-bearing animals. 

 The Bureau has no funds whereby it may carry on any experiments 

 in fur farming in Alaska. About the only help, therefore, that the 

 Bureau can render fur farmers is to aid as best it may in securing for 

 them information in regard to the business." Attention is in this 

 connection invited to the work of the Department of Agriculture. 

 The Bureau of Biological Survey of that Department is interested in 

 the propagation of fur-bearing animals and has an experimental fur 

 farm in northern New York. Its publications on fur farming are of 

 decided interest. 



The data which the Bureau of Fisheries secures in regard to fur 

 farming in Alaska are obtained largely in an incidental way by 

 employees while engaged in their formal work and by means of 

 direct correspondence between the Bureau and fur farmers, who quite 

 generally furnish freely information in regard to their operations. 

 In publishing accounts of fur farms from year to year the Bureau 

 aims chiefly to give new information which has become available. 



Fur farming in Alaska is in most cases concerned with the breeding 

 and rearing of foxes. Some attention has been given to minks and 

 martens, and there are records of martens having been born and 

 reared in captivity in the Territory. Skunks and raccoons have 

 been introduced into southeastern Alaska, but nothing is known as 

 to the success attained nor as to the reasons which led to the choice 

 of these animals as objects of fur farming in Alaska. 



A report for the season 1916 and 1917, furnished byGeorge L. Morri- 

 son, of Hot Springs, in regard to a fox farm at Hot Springs in which 

 he is interested, is in part as follows: 



We ranched 24 pairs of foxes, of which 5 pairs were crosses, 18 pairs were silvers, and 

 1 pair whites. 



From the 24 pairs we had 15 litters born. From the 15 litters we lost 2 litters of 5 

 each, one mother ha\ing biu-ied her young trjdng to conceal them after ha\dn^ been 

 frightened and another having lost her young on account of insufficient nourishment 



a Note is made here of the authority of the Department of Commerce to lease a number of islands in 

 Alaska for the propagation of foxes and other fur-bearing animals. A number of the islands are already 

 under lease. 



