FOX-FARMING IN CANADA 61 



paid for, delivery to be made in the first week of September, 1913. The 

 difference between purchasing futures in foxes and gambling in futures 

 in May wheat or October cotton is more apparent than real. Fox ex- 

 changes were opened at various centres for trading in stocks and futures. 



Naturally, the rapid rise of such an industry has unsettled 

 Ownership* ^^^® peaceful rural conditions in a country like Prince 

 Edward Island. Farmers are using the credit of their 

 farms to purchase shares in silver foxes, or to buy outright cross foxes, 

 red foxes, blue foxes, minks and any other fur-bearer likely to prove 

 profitable. The banks report a serious withdrawal of deposits and real- 

 ization upon outside investments, while the lawyers of the little town of 

 Summerside, P.E.I., are reported to have recorded about $300,000 in 

 farm mortgages in 1912. A goodly share of the savings banks deposits 

 made by these prosperous islanders has also been withdrawn. 



Remarking on the great craze for shares of stock in fox ranches 

 and for fox ownership, Wesley Frost, the United States consul at Char- 

 lottetown, wrote to his government in January 1913: 



"In adjudging the soundness of the present position of the fox 

 industry in Prince Edward Island it should be borne in mind that 

 the community is an intensely conservative one, composed of Scot- 

 tish and English farmers, intelligent and fairly educated, and with 

 a per capita savings deposit figure to compare with almost any 

 portion of the civilized world 



"It is true that a large number of the foremost citizens of the 

 Island refuse to participate in the fox boom to any degree whatso- 

 ever. Every large sale by one of the big ranches is hailed as an 

 effort to unload before the tide turns. Investment at the present 

 time is regarded as an attractive speculation — ^but with the specula- 

 tive element too conspicuous. Granting nearly all that the fox 

 men say, the sceptics fear that, in the readjustments involved in 

 getting back to the pelt basis, the industry will injure many of its 

 followers." 



It is maintained by some that the present craze is similar to 

 Con^^ *^^ Belgian hare craze in America and the tulip craze in 



Europe, both of which collapsed with a heavy slump. It is 

 contended that fox fur is only a poor quality; that silver fox has never 

 been bought in large quantities and that, if production is increased, it 



♦Appendix XI of this report gives a list of the fur-fanning companies and 

 licensees operating in each of the provinces. Practically all of the companies named 

 have been incorporated since the beginning of 1912, which shows that the develop- 

 ment of the industry has been decidedly phenomenal. 



