DOG-BREEDING 



are thousands of small dog-farms scattered over the northern 

 districts of Manchuria and Mongolia, where from ten to 

 hundreds of animals are reared yearly. When a girl is 

 married she receives perhaps six dogs as her dowry, and it 

 can easily be understood that this comparatively small be- 

 ginning may be the foundation of a large fortune, seeing that 

 reproduction of ten per annum would in a few years give an 

 enormous total. A dog matures in from six to eight months, 

 and the coat is at its best during the winter, so that the 

 animal must be destroyed before the thaw sets in. It is 

 doubtful whether the dogs' skins in any other part of the 

 world are to be compared with those that come from Man- 

 churia and Mongolia, either in size, length of hair, or 

 quality." Sir Alexander Hosie remarks that the flesh of the 

 dog is no doubt used for human food, and that its market 

 value enters largely into the farm's profit and loss account. 



" The animals are killed, not with the knife, which might 

 injure the fur, but by strangulation. The skins dried and 

 frozen find a market in Mukden and other places, where they 

 are cured before the thaw affects them, and made into mats 

 and robes." 



Many of these skins are exceptionally large and fine, closely 

 resembling those of the wolf and fox. Large numbers find 

 their way to the European markets. 



55 



