29 



FUR FARMING. 



Fur Farming is only in its infancy, but the success which 

 has rewarded the efforts of those who have faithfully and 

 intelligently labored to rear foxes, skunks, minks and other 

 species of fur-bearing animals in captivity, demonstrates 

 the possibilities of the industry when properly conducted 

 under right conditions. Fur Farming has little to offer to 

 those who engage in it as a "get rich quick" scheme, but 

 for the man who is willing to accept a reasonable com- 

 pensation for his time and the money invested in the 

 enterprise while working for the full development of his 

 plans, it promises larger returns than any other business in 

 which he could engage with the same amount of capital. 



The Hon. Charles Dalton, after twenty years of successful 

 operation, sold his fox ranch on Prince Edward Island for 

 six hundred thousand dollars, and Mr. Tuplin received two 

 hundred and fifty thousand dollars for his farm ; but these 

 men made a study of the animals they were raising and 

 conducted their operations along scientific lines, at all times 

 giving the best that was in them to the work in hand, and 

 looking to the future rather than to the immediate present 

 for results. What they succeeded in doing with foxes, and 

 others have accomplished with skunks, can also be done with 

 minks, raccoons, opossums, muskrats, and possibly bears 

 and lynxes, although it does not appear probable that 

 martens, fishers, weasels, wild cats or wolves can be profit- 

 ably domesticated. 



The Fur Farmer will find that unless the animals have 

 plenty of runway they will not fur properly. If they are 

 kept in restricted quarters, or penned up in a small 

 enclosure, the pelt or hide will be thick and the fur thin; 

 the reason for the thick, silky, glossy fur on skins that come 

 from some of the ranches is that the animals have plenty of 

 room and an abundant varied diet ; skunks for instance that 

 are fed principally on meat, to the exclusion of vegetables 

 and fruit, will not present as fine an appearance as those 

 that are raised on a mixed diet. The thing to strive for 

 is to duplicate as far as possible the natural conditions 

 under which the animal is at its best. It is impossible to 

 improve on nature. 



