12 INTRODUCTION. 



At the present time ferrets are mostly used 

 to exterminate rats and for rabbit hunting. For 

 rate they are much used in barns, granaries, 

 grain elevators, mills, stores, levees, walls, ships 

 or any place where rats are. If rightly used and 

 handled there is no better or quicker way to rid 

 a place of the pests. Where rabbits are doing an 

 injury to fruit trees, etc., ferrets can be used to 

 advantage. Ferrets are also used to some ex- 

 tent on the large Western ground squirrels, 

 gophers and prairie dogs. Some success has also 

 been had in using on mink, skunk, coon and 

 other fur-bearing animals. 



The ferret is very similar to the fitch, an 

 European animal, that furnishes tens of thou- 

 sands of skins to the fur trade annually. In 

 Europe the ferret is sometimes called fitch-ferret 

 where-by many claimed to be half fitch. Some 

 dealers in American furs class ferret skins as 

 "halves'^ — half ferret, half fitch — and buy on 

 that basis. At the present time the fur value of 

 the ferret pelt is but little, yet the time is not far 

 in the future when it, no doubt, will be much 

 more valuable. 



Raising ferrets, like most other lines of busi- 

 ness, is profitable for those who are familiar with 

 the nature and habits of the animal, but is apt to 

 prove otherwise for those who know nothing 



