36 FUR FARMING. ' 



and contain dens where the Foxes can sleep and make 

 their nests. 



Originally the cost of maintaining a pair of Foxes on 

 Prince Edward Island did not exceed seven dollars a year, 

 but with the growth of the industry the price of food stuffs 

 has advanced, so that the cost now is about twenty-five 

 dollars per annum. 



SKUNK RAISING. 



The Skunk has received more consideration from fur 

 farmers than any other animal, and where proper care and 

 judgment have been exercised skunk raising has always 

 proved a profitable investment for the time and money de- 

 voted to it. The few failures that have resulted have 

 been among the larger operators, whose knowledge of the 

 nature and habits of the animal, and the requirements of 

 the industry, were theoretical rather than experimental. 

 The people who have started in on a small scale were for 

 the most part either trappers or others who had enjoyed 

 opportunities to study the animals and their wants, and 

 were in a position to give to the venture that personal and 

 comprehensive attention upon which the success of every 

 enterprise depends. This does not mean that those with- 

 out practical experience with the animals must necessarily 

 make a failure of fur farming. The point we wish to em- 

 phasize is, that the successful breeders of fur bearing ani- 

 mals are those who make a special study of the species they 

 are propagating, and who take the same interest in them 

 that they would in any strain of domestic cattle they were 

 trying to develope. The men who fail in fur farming are 

 those who neglect to study the habits of the animals, and 

 consequently know nothing about caring for them when in 

 captivity. In Silver Fox farming, where a pair of breed- 

 ing Foxes cost from six to twelve thousand dollars, capital 

 as well as knowledge is required to begin business unless 

 the breeder is in position to capture his own stock; but in 

 Skunk-raising, where a man can start with a half dozen 

 males and a couple of dozen females at an expense of a few 

 hundred dollars, the only essential element of success is 

 knowledge and faithful work. 



'Skunks breed well in captivity and will eat almost any 

 kind of food from carrion down to mice and insects ; they 



