FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 37 



thing he would eat himself, and some grass, minnows, mice, crickets 

 and berries besides. 



The flesh diet of foxes is horse meat, calves, butcher scraps 

 Diet (livers, hearts, heads, etc.), fish (both cured and fresh), 



rabbits, groundhogs, mice, rats, birds, squirrels, lobster bodies, 

 and old cattle and sheep. The flesh is usually fed raw, but some 

 feeders parboil it. It is salted slightly when parboiled, only a small 

 amount of salt being used. Frequently carcasses are salted down in 

 casks, and, when required for food, a portion is freshened by placing it 

 in running water for a day or two. Some of the finest foxes seen were 

 fed with this kind of food and seemed to be in very thrifty condition, 

 possibly because of being free from worms. Some ranches have cold 

 storage plants, and keep the meat packed with ice. No storage houses 

 similar to bait-freezers are used as yet, but the bait-freezer at Rustico, 

 P.E.I., might serve as a model for such a house. Neither has any 

 mechanical refrigeration of any kind been attempted. 



Old cattle and horses are kept on the hoof and slaughtered from 

 time to time as required. As foxes have been known to die of tuber- 

 culosis, these should be subjected to the tuberculin test or, at least, 

 examined for tubercles after killing. The amount of meat fed should 

 be about one-fourth pound a day and this amount should be decreased 

 if any of it is buried by the fox. 



« . The non-flesh food consists of biscuits, veast bread, hoe 

 Non-flesh , • , •,, -, 



Diet bread, vegetables, porridge, grass, berries, apples, milk and 



eggs. Patent dog biscuits are fed with good results, one 

 ranch using only Spratt's biscuits, with milk and water, as food. The 

 best ordinary biscuit is the plain hardtack. It is probable that hard- 

 baked non-yeast bread is better than leavened bread. Bread is more 

 relished if grease drippings are poured upon it. Tallow has been used 

 with good success as a butter on hoe bread. 



Any rations are liable to fail unless the food is served properly. 

 The dishes should be frequently scalded and scrubbed and kept scrupu- 

 lously clean. The water vessel should be fastened to the fence with 

 wire hooks so that the foxes cannot climb over it. The food must be 

 withheld when foxes are observed to bury or hide it. In frosty wea- 

 ther in April or May, frozen meat would kill the young foxes, so 

 it is necessary to feed it warm or parboiled in such weather. If one 

 fox dominates the other and takes too large a share of the food, a large 

 quantity must be supplied at night and removed when both have had 

 enough, e.g.. a cow's head may be left in a pen for several days to 

 furnish the flesh diet. 



