CHAPTER VI. 
BEeaver Farms—Some FanciruL PIcTURES OF THE 
Bustness AS PRESENTED BY AN OPTIMIST— 
RESULT OF PREMATURE ADVERTISING. 
IEWING the natural home and haunts of the 
beaver for many years and making some studies 
as to their habits, meantime, the writer of these pages 
felt called upon to express himself through the Wash- 
burn Leader during the spring of 1894 on the subject 
of his investigation as to the domestication of beavers 
brought forth from a successful attempt of two ranchmen 
in South Dakota, whose sole outlay in the premises was 
care and a guardianship that harm would not come to 
them from the murderous inclinations of some of their 
own race. The following is one of the articles referred 
to, as copied from the Washburn Leader issued Satur- 
day, January 27, 1894: 
‘‘A Harding county, South Dakota paper says that 
Messrs. Baker & Smith have taken up sufficient land 
along Valley creek and have gone into beaver farming, 
or rather, they have been in the business for several 
years and now have a herd of over two hundred beavers. 
The beaver ranch is situated along the creek, and 
around it they have erected a woven wire fence. The 
beavers have done the rest. 
