i2 4 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



the need for farming and increasing the diminishing supply of heavy 

 furs. When touring cars numbered only a few thousands, you 

 could buy a good beaver coat for #200 to #300. That was in 1914. 

 You can't buy the same coat to-day even with an increased supply 

 of beaver, under #500 to #700 ; so when beaver prices fell off in 1920, 

 the wise old traders, whose finances permitted it, put their best 

 beaver pelts back in storage for future demand. 



Size for size, beaver is to-day cheaper than nutria. 



Nutria are trapped only from May to October, chiefly by the 

 half-blood race of Gauchos in South America. The flesh like the 

 beaver and the muskrat is prized for food. 



