muskrats can be farmed profitably under suitable 

 conditions. 



The department calls the attention of farmers to 

 the desirability of keeping poachers off their forest 

 lands and encouraging fur-bearing animals by pre- 

 serving hollow trees and by substituting animal-proof 

 chicken yards for the gun and trap in protecting 

 their poultry. 



Tactful Handling of Skunk Makes Him 

 Valuable on Farm. 



Few persons have seriously considered establishing 

 friendly relations with a skunk. It has been done 

 in some cases under the misapprehension that the 

 animal was a cat, and the results have been unpleas- 

 ant. But the Biological Survey of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture has investigated the skunk 

 and found him to be the best wild-animal friend the 

 farmer has. 



Almost any farmer might have 2 or 3 dozen skunks 

 at work for him destroying mice, grasshoppers, crick- 

 ets, and white grubs, and furnishing him from $50 

 to $100 worth of fur a year. All that is necessary is 

 that he respect their dens, keep his poultry in skunk- 

 proof yards, kill an old horse for them every fall, 

 and be tactful when he meets them in the evening. 

 There is a marked depression of the fur market at 

 present, but recovery to normal is anticipated. 



It has been estimated that a year's catch of skunks 

 in New York state is worth $1,000,000. Only one- 



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