FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 75 



They say that the chief difficulties are in securing the first litter 

 from the wild animals and in getting suitable food. The wild mink 

 is usually wholly unsusceptible to domestication or even semi-domes- 

 tication. They frequently kill themselves by hanging, cutting their 

 throats, or beating their heads against a wall. Most of them will 

 commit suicide or die of fear on the near approach of a dog. These 

 facts have been corroborated in the experience of 1912, a large pro- 

 portion of wild mink having died while being shipped and a large 

 number of those caught for ranching purposes being found dead, some- 

 times badly cut or lacerated. 



If the young are taken from the mother as early as possible — say 

 six weeks or seven weeks old, in Eastern Canada about June 15 — 

 they become very tame and, according to the advocates of this new 

 method of ranching, can be reared in family colonies afterwards. A 

 colony house, or large box, can be provided and a considerable runway 

 or paddock may extend in front to include a portion of a stream. 



The food is English sparrows, frogs, meat, fish, bread and milk. 

 The young are fed new milk. An English sparrow each day is the 

 proper amount of food. As they are promiscuous in mating, the 

 majority of the males may be slaughtered and only the finest kept. 



The method of ranching mink which has been used almost 

 Pen System exclusively in America is one which employs a small pen 

 for each animal and supplies the water in troughs to each 

 pen. The two largest establishments visited consisted of an ordinary 

 bam about 20 feet wide and 30 feet long. The walls were open under 

 the eaves to make the interior as airy as possible. On either side of 

 a central alley were pens about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, provided 

 with a nest box on a slight elevation, and having a crooked passage 

 for entrance. Water ran through troughs at the ends of the pm, or 

 was pumped in daily. The partitions were of wire above and boards 

 near the floor. If wire is used for the walls, an overhang is necessary 

 to prevent climbing out, or the wire might be made to extend over 

 the pens completely. Very little light is required, as the mink usually 

 sleeps during the day. 



Mink can be reared in such pens but there are grave doubts of the 

 permanency of the good health of the animals. In a Nova Scotia ranch 

 there was no difficulty in rearing an average of tlirco and a half 

 to a litter. The young minks had litters of from two to four 

 and the older breeders sometimes had six. With such satisfactory 

 results, when every pair raised could be sold for $40 and food coiild be 

 procured freely, it is inconceivable why development of the business 

 did not proceed. The managers were continually selling off their stock 



