114 



COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



A discount of 2^^ per cent, off these prices is given and the selling 

 commission of 6 per cent, and the carriage and insurance charges bring 

 the total cost of marketing furs in London up to about 9 per cent, of 

 the selling price. 



Statistics for 1908 and 1909 are wholly lacking, the records being 

 reported lost. Satisfactory proof was furnished that the following sales 

 were made, although possibly not more than one-half the total quantity 

 of skins sold in the period 1905-1913 are represented: 



SALES OF P. E. I. SILVER FOX SKINS, 1905-1912 



The average for the last seven years would probably be slightly 

 lower if reports of all sales were available. On the other hand, the price 

 has advanced since 1905, most noticeably so in 1910 and in 1912. 



On account of the demand for breeding animals, but few skins have 

 been sold since 1910. 



No ranches other tban those on Prince Edward Island have fur- 

 nished proof of the prices obtained for skins produced by them. T. L. 

 Burrowman of Wyoming, Ont., (offered no documentary proof of his 

 sales. The highest price he claimed to have received for a silver fox 

 skin was $1,050 and he admitted that the skin came from the vicinity 

 of Labrador and hence belonged to the sub-species V. hangsi. Mr. 

 .lohann Beotz, of the North shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sold 

 his breeders at a much lower price than the Prince Edward Island 

 ranchers. Messrs. Holt, Renfrew & Co., of Quebec, are holding all 

 their ho^t stock and selling only some inferior specimens to brokers or 

 traders. They have made n® test of the business as a fur-raising propo- 

 sition and have not invested capital as freely as such intelligent and 

 enterprising furriers would be expected to do if they thought they could 

 rear the silver fox profitably. The other experiments in Alaska, Yukon 

 .and elsewhere are too recent to produce results. 



