MINOR FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 121 
The cost of black foxes, if caught from the wild, will run all the way from $300 to 
$1,000 or over per pair. If good ranch-bred stock should be purchased, then the cost 
would probably exceed to a considerable extent the latter figure. We think, however, 
that $400 per pair is the very least that one could figure on for wild stock. 
In addition to the above amounts, one must also take into account the cost of con- 
ducting the ranch for at least a year, or until it becomes productive, and for thig 
item alone not less than $1,000 can be safely figured on, even if the owner does his work 
without an assistant. Therefore, a 10-pair ranch of black foxes, at the time when the 
first litters are born, would represent an investment of not less than $9,000, and this 
figure does not cover contingencies that are likely to arise. We think it safe to say 
that one undertaking this business should have available a sum not less than $900 or 
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$1,000 for each pair of foxes put into corrals, or from $500 to $600 per pair in addition to 
the actual cost of the foxes. 
While the investment necessary for stocking and equipping a ranch on the above 
basis represents a considerable sum, still it is small when compared with the enormous 
amounts for which many of the fox ranches in Canada and the Eastern States have been 
incorporated. In Canada, for instance, fox companies have been incorporated from 
$11,000 to $31,250 per pair, and entire stock issues have been disposed of at these 
rates. 
Only the fact that fanless prices have been realized during the past four or five 
years for breeding stock has made it possible for companies capitalized for such exces- 
sive amounts to-pay dividends. It would seem that the sole aim of most of these fox 
companies has been to rear and dispose of stock for breeding purposes; that very little 
attention has been given to the production of pelts, and as a matter of fact a small 
percentage of the foxes produced of late have been sold for fur. Asa natural conse- 
quence of this system, the production of breeding stock will soon exceed the demand, 
and then the value of animals raised will be gauged by what the fur can be sold for on 
the market. As the time approaches when breeding stock is less in demand, there- 
fore, and when the profits of a ranch will have to be in accordance with the pelt value 
