164 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The furs sold in this region are seldom assorted before sale. They 

 are separated into black and brown and then counted, a deduction of 

 from 3 to 5 per cent being made for "kits." The skins sold throughout 

 the present season at Baltimore prices, 35 cents for brown and 45 cents 

 for black. The proportion of black skins varies on the different marshes 

 from 10 to 60 per cent, the average being about 40 per cent. 



The muskrat meat is an additional source of income to the trapper. 

 It is bought by local buyers, who during the season, 1909, paid only 4 

 cents for each animal; it is shipped to outside markets or sold for local 

 consumption. The demand for the meat is growing, and all of it is 

 utilized. The Baltimore market takes about 30,000 animals during a 

 season, the bulk of which comes from Dorchester county. 



The editor of the Cambridge Record, a local newspaper, stated that 

 the muskrat industry of Dorchester brings into the county about 

 $100,000 annually. This would indicate that about a quarter million 

 of the animals are trapped each season. The danger of exhausting the 

 supply by continued close trapping has been discussed in Dorchester 

 county, but trappers maintain that with the long closed season, March 

 15 to January 1, little ground for anxiety on this score exists. 



Possibilities of the Business. — Muskrats require no feeding, since 

 the plant life of ponds and marshes furnishes abundance of food. In 

 many states the areas adapted to the muskrat are extensive, and 

 doubtless the animals could be profitably introduced into sections from 

 which they are now absent. As trapping is done in winter, the business 

 of muskrat farming is peculiarly adapted to farmers and farmers' boys. 



The improvement of the muskrat's pelage by selective breeding has 

 never been attempted. Probably the black muskrat could be bred true 

 to colour and greatly improved in the localities it now inhabits, and 

 could be successfully introduced into other sections of the country. 

 Indeed, to make the most of the muskrat industry requires that the 

 possibilities of selective breeding be tested. 



