14 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



system of double mating. Large quantities of salmon, lobsters and game 

 were caught for food for the foxes, while horse-meat was occasionally 

 brought from Quebec city. He augmented his stock with native Quebec 

 wild foxes and conducted feeding experiments with red foxes. Careful 

 selection has improved his strain until they grade dark silver throughout. 

 Authentic reports state that M. Menier, who owns Anticosti 

 island, has attempted to breed foxes there, and has set at liberty silver 

 and patched foxes to grade up the colour of the wild fox. 



. Mr. Burrowman is a fur-buyer who, at an early date, 



Experimenter recognized the possibilities in domesticating fur-bearers. 

 He kept foxes in captivity twenty-two years, but did 

 not successfully rear young to maturity until about ten years ago, 

 because, prior to that time, he kept more than one pair in a single pen. 

 He may be called the father of the Ontario fox-ranching business. The 

 only assistance he obtained was from the late Dr. Robertson of Fox- 

 croft, Me. 



The placing of the fox-raising industry on a commercial 

 and Oulton basis is due to the efforts of Charles Dalton, of Tignish, 



P.E.I., and his former partner, Eobert T. Oulton, 

 formerly of Alberton, P.E.I,, but now of Little Shemogue, N.B. 

 Dalton began experimenting about 1887, with red foxes, which he 

 kept in a shed at Nail Pond. Later, he bought two pairs of silver foxes 

 from neighbouring districts and from Anticosti island and continued 

 his experiments with indifferent success for about ten years. During 

 that time, Oulton was also experimenting with foxes, having bought 

 a silver fox from Mr. Gibbs of Lot 5, and a pair of silvers from a Mr. 

 Pope, of Anticosti island. All Anticosti foxes were subsequently 

 slaughtered because they did not come up to the requisite standard of 

 quality. 



One of their chief concerns was keeping off prying neighbours 

 from their ranch premises. While Beetz had little difficulty with 

 neighbours, the obtaining of a sufficient food supply was a matter that 

 gave no little trouble. Dalton and Oulton were more fortunate in their 

 food supply as the thickly-settled farming country all about them sup- 

 plied horse flesh and other cheap meat in abundance. Tallow, corn- 

 meal, fish, oat-meal, flour and butchers' waste were available in plenty 

 and a very small outlay in cash procured a large supply. 



Oulton pursued his work on Savage island, of which he was the 

 sole inhabitant. He managed to impress the public with the necessity 

 of keeping away from his ranch, and his pens, constructed within an 

 outside enclosure a quarter acre in area, were the models for the 

 present system of ranching. Dalton and Oulton joined interests in 

 1895 or thereabouts, and, together, worked out successfully the present 



