viii FOREWORD 



ten years more than IOOO fur ranches have sprung up in Canada 

 and the United States ; and this is only the beginning of a movement 

 destined to transform the fur trade and do for it what domestic care 

 has done for the race horse, or the pure blood Holstein. Pure blood, 

 registered silver fox fur bearers to-day sell for from $10,000 to $35,000 

 a pair ; and when each pup may yield a pelt worth $1200 to $2000, it 

 doesn't need telling that the pups get the care of millionnaire babies ; 

 and the greater the care, the finer the fur and the higher the price. 



But why kill these pups at all ? 



Read the story of the fox if you want to know ! Because of 

 the "superfluous male" and his ardent desire to scratch the eyes 

 out of a rival and eat his entrails. 



But how about the best Persian lamb from unborn kids ? That 

 charge is a plain unvarnished lie. Fur farms are to-day supplying 

 the fur trade with the lamb skins ; and as I was penning these words 

 was handed to me a set of Dr. Young's pictures of his famous kara- 

 kul ranches in California. Can you conceive of any fur farmer, 

 who has imported ewes and rams from Bokhara at a cost of thousands 

 and can resell his breeding stock at from $500 to $10,000 a pair, 

 killing "the goose that lays the golden egg" ? If so, where would 

 the lambs for next year's supply come from ? The charge is too 

 ridiculous to require refutation. When lambs are born prematurely, 

 which happens in the best regulated families, the pelt is saved, of 

 course, which is the sole ground for the charge. 



The chapters of this volume consist in part of articles, which 

 have from time to time in the last ten years appeared in magazines, 

 to which I am indebted for permission to use with such corrections 

 and additions as the changes in the trade necessitated. 



I emphasize the word "corrections"; for figures that were 

 correct in the fur trade even four years ago are obsolete to-day. 

 In no American industry has the pace gone so fast, and shifted so 

 completely. The War hastened but did not cause this. It was 

 inevitable that America — the biggest buyer of raw furs in the 

 world — would ultimately become the market centre of the fur 



