FERRETVILLE. 27 



ferrets are raised by thousands. While the in- 

 dustry is one where the demand will probably 

 remain under 200,000 yearly for rat and rabbit 

 purposes, yet as the tens of thousands sold an- 

 nually go to all parts of America, it puts Ferret- 

 ville upon the map, so to speak, far and wide. 



Gradually, the importance and volume of 

 business being done in ferrets in Northern Ohio 

 w^as noted by enterprising people elsewhere, who 

 began raising them. The industry spread to 

 other parts of Ohio, also to other states, and 

 even west of the Mississippi River. So many, 

 however, took to raising them at New London, 

 only a few miles from where the FarnsAVorths 

 were so successful, that that locality produces 

 about one-half of the total number raised in 

 North America. It bids fair to continue doing 

 so. 



During the spring of 1915 there was prob- 

 ably a dozen breeders in and near New London, 

 who had from fifty to five hundred females. At 

 that time Held & Anderson had the greatest 

 number, five hundred. The total number of 

 females kept for breeding in the New London 

 territory was around 2,500. This included not 

 only those that make ferret raising a business, 

 but those who keep a few. Add to these probably 

 1,500 more within a radius of fifty miles and the 



