26 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The following is a summary of the best conditions for fox-ranch- 

 ing operations : 



1. Foxes should be ranched in woodland areas in a climate 

 cold enough to produce a heavy fur and overhair. 



2. The value of the pelt depends on good health as well as 

 on climatic conditions. Wholesome varied food is a necessary con- 

 dition for health and can be best secured in a thickly-settled rural 

 district. 



3. Foundation stock should be the best obtainable. The best 

 foxes are those in captivity in ranches, and they have the addi- 

 tional advantage of being half-domesticated. 



There are some advantages to be gained by conducting extensive 

 ranching operations in one locality, particularly because breeding 

 animals may be easily exchanged and the dangers of close, or in-breed- 

 ing, prevented. Neighbours can also impart to one another more freely 

 what their experience has taught them. These advantages, however, 

 may be offset by the difficulties of securing food for the foxes. In every 

 rural township there is enough cheap meat and offal to supply flesh 

 diet to scores of foxes, but not to hundreds. Several hundred foxes, 

 therefore, in one neighbourhood, would necessitate the purchase of costly 

 meat. An ordinary farm has enough waste meat scrap, dripping, bread, 

 biscuits and game to support several animals. 



.... A wooded area, not subiect to flooding, and where the 



A Woodland , ' ., / , -,■<.,■■, • , ^ 



Site snow does not pile up in deep drifts in winter, is best 



adapted for the site of the ranch. The subsoil should be 

 a hardpan to prevent deep burrowing and escape under the fences. 

 Areas which produce a growth of birch, spruce, fir and cedar, with 

 heath plants and blueberries in the open areas, have usually a good 

 turfy cover and a hardpan subsoil near the surface. In such a situa- 

 tion, it is easy to erect pens as the fences have only to be extended down 

 to hardpan to prevent the foxes from burrowing under and escaping. 

 A sandy soil and subsoil, on the other hand, entails an additional ex 

 pense, as they can burrow to depths of six feet or more. 

 A family of foxes working one behind the other will relay earth out of 

 a sandy hole in a veritable shower. In ordinary loam, the fence is not 

 considered safe unless it extends down a depth of over three feet and 

 is founded on a subsoil of considerable hardness. 



Proximity to the dwelling of the keeper is also an important con- 

 sideration. This is usually accomplished by building the ranch in a 

 woodland lot a few hundred yards distant from the house, or, if the 

 ranch is a considerable distance from the owner's dwelling, by building 



