FUR FARMING TO SUPPLY WORLD DEMAND 55 



It was in 1898 that Johann Beetz, a Belgian, brought down a 

 pair of Alaska silver foxes to Piastre Baie on the north shore of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence and established them in pens with salmon, 

 lobster and game as a diet. For eighteen years, he watched his 

 fur family till they graded pure dark silver thoroughbreds. Dalton 

 of Prince Edward Island had begun experimenting with red foxes 

 in 1887. Oulton, later his partner, was doing the same with foxes 

 from Anticosti Island ; but because the Anticosti foxes had been 

 allowed to run wild, they did not prove true and were killed off the 

 Prince Edward Island ranch. The two men joined interests in 

 1896 and constructed quarter acre pens within an outside enclosure 

 from which curious sightseers were utterly barred. Beetz had begun 

 by mating his fox to several lady partners ; but Dalton had found 

 that the fox is a strictly monogamous gentleman if so permitted ; 

 and that led to pure strains of blood and better and better fur. 

 It was in 1900 that #1800 was paid for a silver fox skin in London ; 

 and the two fur farmers began to foresee possibilities that would 

 turn a fox farm into a gold mine. Foxes litter 5 to 9 puppies a year, 

 and begin to reproduce themselves the second year. Could but a 

 perfect prolific strain of silver be established, nine times $1800 

 would be a fairly valuable family from little fellows whose food could 

 be kept to a cost of $50 a year, with a keeper who could supervise 

 a dozen families. 



A neighbor of Dalton's in 1898 had been able to buy a pair of 

 foxes for $340. Ten years later, as good a pair cost all the way from 

 $3000 to $35,000. It beat the land boom in the West, or the oil 

 craze in the South ; and was equally chancy ; for ranchers new 

 to the game lost their litters of priceless beauties from not having 

 provided nests that were damp-proof. Finally by placing a small 

 barrel in a large barrel and packing the space between with in- 

 sulator cold-proof, the lady fox was provided with a proper cradle 

 for her young ; and each year's costly experience was adding to the 

 fur rancher's knowledge. 



Naturally, while fox farming was still experimental with critics 



