FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 25 



RANCHING PRACTICE 



While it is legal to keep fur-bearers in captivity in those provinces 

 in Canada where there is no close season provided for them, it is unlaw- 

 ful in most provinces to keep protected fur-bearers during tTie close 

 season. It is also unlawful to catch fur-bearers for ranching purposes 

 in the close season in all provinces except Prince Edward Island. 

 Apparently it is lawful in Saskatchewan and Quebec to hold the animals 

 during the close season, provided they have been caught in the open 

 season, or brought from a point outside the province. In all the other 

 provinces, no ranching can be legally done without a permit from the 

 provincial department charged with the care of game and fur-bearing 

 animals. 



The various provincial authorities can encourage fur-farming by 

 amending their game laws so as to allow the issue of permits to residents 

 to catch fur-bearerg and hold them in captivity for breeding purposes at 

 any season. Eequiring annual returns of production would prevent any 

 abuse of this privilege. 



If foundation stock of excellent quality has been secured, 

 the Ranch the next most important question to be considered is the 

 selection of a site for the ranch where the quality of the 

 stock can be maintained from generation to generation. Climatic influ- 

 ences are largely responsible for the value of the coat of fur. If an abun- 

 dance of good food can be secured, an animal produces the heaviest coat 

 where the climate is coldest. Humidity of atmosphere must also be 

 considered. Poland says that open water, such as lakes and seas, 

 renders the fur thicker, probably owing to the high percentage of humid- 

 ity in the atmosphere. Exposed sea coasts and exposed prairies, he 

 says, render fur coarse, while woods and forests cause it to be finer. 

 For instance, the timber or forest wolves have finer fur than those living 

 on the exposed prairie. Mr. Wesley Frost, United States consul at 

 Charlottetown, in a report to his government in 1912, says: "The 

 temperature and humidity on the Island [Prince Edward] are a happy 

 mean between the intense cold and the moist, dull weather of New- 

 foundland, Labrador and Alaska, and the warmer, drier weather of 

 regions farther south. The far northern furs are saidT:o be coarse and 

 shaggy, while the furs produced in the northern states of our own coun- 

 try are light and thin." It is also said that the absence of limestone 

 in Prince Edward Island and Westmorland county, New Brunswick, 

 gives a perfect soil for foxes to burrow in and is beneficial to the fur 

 covering. As some excellent foxes never burrow at all, the ranchers 

 carefully stopping up the holes whenever a start is made, there can- 

 not be much ground for this assumption. 



