Fox Raising in Cook County 



TIME was when milady's furs represented hardships on 

 the part of trappers who spent their time hunting for 

 and killing the fur bearing animals. All this has been 

 changed and the same furs now represent scientific labor on 

 on the part of former trappers. Instead of spending their en- 

 tire winters killing the fur bearing animals, the trappers are 

 new maintaining farms where they raise them. 



There are several farms in Minnesota where wild animals 

 are raised for their fur. Several skunk farms are in opera- 

 tion. One of the most interesting of the farms where former 

 trappers are raising wild animals is the fox farm owned by 

 the Robertson brothers in Cook county. 



Caught in Spring of Year. 



The Robertson farm on Devil's Track Lake has so far 

 proven extremely profitable. A little more than a year ago 

 the Robertson brothers began the catching of live foxes by 

 digging them out from their winter quarters in the spring of 

 the year, after the young ones were born. From two to six 

 and in some cases as high as nine animals were taken out of 

 a den. In a number of cases there were one or more cross 

 foxes in a litter, and in two cases the trappers were lucky 

 enough to make a catch of the very valuable silver fox. 



The pelt of the silver fox is worth $1,000, more or less de- 

 pending upon quality. The silver foxes caught by the Robert- 

 sons are not killed for their pelts, however, but are nursed 

 with great care in order that they may be kept for breeding 

 purposes. 



Mr. Robertson has found that by selective breeding a larger 

 per cent of cross foxes is obtained than if they breed in the 

 wild state. A silver fox is finally produced through in breed- 

 ing several generations of cross foxes. 



Last summer the Robertsons sold their entire spring catch 



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