72 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Quebec and the Ungava peninsula. Wliile it lives on the water a large 

 part of its time and makes its home near streams, it can live on the land 

 away from the water and has even been found in trees. 



The fur is dense and soft and the overhair is of stiff lustrous water 

 hairs. The darkest colour extends down the back and tail. The dyers 

 usually accentuate the dark colour by brush dying or tipping the fur. 



Brass estimates the world's yearly supply as follows : America, 

 600,000 skins; Europe, 20,000; and Asia, 20,000. They do not seem 

 to be decreasing rapidly but the price is advancing and, owing to the 

 excellent quality and durability of the fur, is likely to remain high. 

 Some fancy ranch skins have been sold for $13 and good skins will 

 bring about $10 each. Some conception of the extra value of north- 

 eastern mink can be formed when it is known that Quebec furriers sold 

 their mink to New York in 1911 at $9 each, and purchased mink of 

 the same quality mixed with best eastern United States skins at $8 each. 



Mink-Farming 



The farming of the mink is still in the experimental stage, and 

 no ranches examined, except perhaps two, would justify detailed de- 

 scriptions as models to copy from. It has been demonstrated that mink 

 can be kept in captivity and its young reared successfully. As for the 

 quality of pelt, only a few statements could be secured. All attempts 

 to rear this animal in Canada are too recent, or else were made over 

 thirty years ago when mink was high-priced, and accurate records were 

 not kept. The statements of sales of skins received were highly satisfac- 

 tory, and indicate that pelts from stock bred in ranches is, under cer- 

 tain conditions, better than the wild stock. It was also demonstrated 

 that rapid improvement in the stock is possible because of the oppor- 

 tunity for selection of sires — an opportunity not possible in fox rear- 

 ing at the present time because of the latter animal's monogamous 

 habits. Thus, one male out of every four or five can be chosen for 

 his size, beauty of colour or quiet disposition, and a rapid improvement 

 towards a good stock made. 



There have been hundreds of mink ranches in America and there 

 are probably about fifty in Canada at the present time. None of them 

 are very pretentious except, possibly, that of La Compaguie Zootechnique 

 de Labelle, Ltd., the head office of which is in Montreal and the ranch 

 at Lac Chaud, in the Laurentian highlands of Quebec. The capital of 

 the company is $49,000. As soon as the success of mink-ranching is 

 assured, it is proposed to proceed with the breeding of the otter along 

 similar lines. 



