54 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



how far fur farming may go in the fur world. It is to-day growing 

 so fast, that though I have the latest records I am aware this record 

 of it will be incomplete before a year has passed. 



I recall the day when Manitoba's record as a wheat province 

 touched the unhoped aggregate of a million bushels. The Western 

 provinces are to-day shipping 300,000,000 bushels of wheat. But 

 yesterday, the American trade in furs fluctuated from #17,000,000 

 to #30,000,000. In the years of the War, it jumped to over #100,- 

 000,000; and when fur farming has increased the supply of rare 

 pelts, and fur dressing has done for other furs what it has done 

 transforming muskrat from a I2fi pelt to a #5 pelt, I look to see 

 America's trade in furs jump like the jump in Western wheat from 

 #100,000 to #300,000,000. In 1908, the exports of furs from the 

 United States were worth #7,712,890, and the imports were 

 #15,918,149 — #23,000,000 in all. To-day, that foreign trade in 

 furs exceeds #100,000,000. 



The first successful silver fox farm in Prince Edward Island sold 

 a few seasons ago for #600,000. The neighboring successful fox 

 ranch sold for #250,000. Thirty young foxes of first grade in fur 

 were produced from one pair in nine years ; and the pelts of this 

 family sold at an average of #1500. It is a question if any Hol- 

 stein beauties ever showed as spectacular a record. On 80 ranches 

 in Prince Edward Island at the present time are 200 silver foxes 

 and 3000 of cross and silver and 400 pure cross. Eighty-five per 

 cent of the silver foxes coming on the fur market to-day come from 

 Prince Edward Island. Prince Edward Island prime pelts seldom 

 bring less than #500 and one brought over #2000. In 191 3, 

 #12,000,000 had been invested in silver fox farming on the Island. 

 To-day the total is close to #26,000,000. Eight hundred dollars 

 is considered cheap for a pair of good foxes — vixen and dog — and 

 as high as #35,000 has been paid for a perfect pair. The danger 

 to-day is not that silver fox farming will not succeed, but that it 

 will succeed so well that it will attract not stock breeders but stock 

 jobbers and fly-by-night speculators. 



