54 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



United States there is a silver fox ranch at Dover, Me., and another in 

 New Hampshire. One was reported from Copper Eiver, Alaska. In 

 Eussia there are none. 



Since, under present ranchinsr conditions, silver foxes 



The Increase . ' . ^, • , , .^^ 



In Numbers increase m numbers approximately 100 per cent, each 

 year, it seems evident that the present prices for founda- 

 tion stock must decline to near the pelt value before many 

 years. The price of the scrub stock and of specimens with the poorer 

 grade of skins will decline first. It is likely that this inferior stock 

 will I'-e used for mating with red and cross foxes which, by the year 

 1916, should be producing a large number of silvers, mostly of poor 

 quality, however. 



With regard to statements frequently made that silver 

 Final Value of . 



Silver Fox fox wiU be as cheap as rabbit if produced as numerously, 



tlie point is not worth discussing since production will 

 not increase beyond the point where a profit can be made. The Lon- 

 don importation of rabbits is now over 80,000,000 skins annually and 

 Australia uses thousands more weekly in her great felting industries. 

 An attempt was made to secure expert opinions from qualified furriers 

 as to the final value of silver fox pelts when they are produced in as large 

 numbers as those of red foxes are now. The consensus of opinion was 

 that because of its greater beauty and more favoured colour, silver fox fur 

 would be three times as valuable as red fox, natural black furs not 

 occurring commonly in nature. In this connection it must be remem- 

 bered that all ranch silver foxes are killed when the fur is prime and 

 no injury whatever is done to the pelt, so that their pelts would be worth 

 from $40 to $80 each for No. 1 skins at the present valuation of the 

 pelts of red foxes from Northeast Canada. But it will be a long time 

 before the production of silver foxes will approach to the number of 

 even high-grade red foxes marketed yearly. The total number of skins, 

 according to the estimates of E. Brass is 1,337,000 yearly for the 

 common fox. Even if the pelts fell to $30, foxes could be raised profit- 

 ably by a farmer who maintained other live stock. In many districts 

 the annual cash outlay per fox for food need not exceed $5, and attending 

 to tw^enty foxes would not involve as much labour as attending to ten 

 cattle. If fox ranch fences cost more, the land and houses cost much 

 less. The fox, moreover, reproduces rapidly and comes to maturity in 

 eight months. 



Because the silver fox has never been produced in considerable 

 numbers, it has been impossible for furriers to carry a stock large 

 enough to warrant advertising it and featuring its sale. It has been 

 difficult to obtain even two matched skins at one sale. Under the new 



