FUR FARMING TO SUPPLY WORLD DEMAND 61 



should precede the birth of the family as in all domesticated animals. 

 Water pans and feed tins must be kept fly clean, germ clean and 

 spotless. The litter usually comes some fifty days after mating 

 in January, which gives ample time for the young fox to come into 

 good fur by the following December. 



It seems ridiculous, but a moment's thought shows it necessary, 

 to have a cat with young kittens on the spot, when the fox mother 

 brings forth her young. In case of anything going wrong with the 

 mother, the little blind puppies are fed a la wet nurse with the cat. 

 Some have been brought up on the bottle, but that is too ticklish 

 a job to recommend. Blindness lasts 14 to 18 days. The nest 

 is left the fourth week, and weaning takes place about the third 

 month. Litters come once a year and run from one to nine 

 puppies. 



Foxes can be induced to be polygamous but are naturally mo- 

 nogamous and they ordinarily bring forth young for ten or eleven 

 years. That is, a good mother can be depended on for from $25,000 

 to $50,000 of pelts in a lifetime. Very few animals can beat this 

 record for profit. 



The Canadian Conservation Commission's Report gives these 

 directions for judging a silver fox skin : 



"The condition of the pelt in respect to primeness, proper killing, 

 skinning, drying and shipping is important. Skins may be blue 

 or unprime ; springy, when the hips and shoulders are worn and 

 the hair loose; dirty, shot, chewed, heated or greasy. In such 

 cases their value is largely decreased. 



The skin value of the live animal may be judged from the 

 following standards : 



Color. — Glossy black on neck, and wherever no silver hairs 

 are found. The black must be of a bluish cast all over the body 

 rather than a reddish. The under fur must also be dark colored. 

 The fur of silver and black foxes is a dark slate next to the skin. 



Silver hairs. — Pure silver bands — not white nor very promi- 

 nent. In the costliest skins there are only a few silver hairs, which 



