BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 35 
They have built their own dams and always prepare 
for winter just as though they were not prisoners. The 
firm will kill off some of the older males this winter and 
thus begin to realize something from the investment. 
As first class beaver skins are worth at present on th 
eastern market about $8 per pound, a big skin weigh- 
ing about three pounds, Beavers are twice as prolific as 
sheep and one of the most docile and intelligent animals 
in the world. In their wild state they are becoming 
scarcer every year, and are almost extinct in North Dak. 
As they need but little attention, and furnish their own 
feed summer and winter, and this climate is peculiarly 
fitted for their sustainance and propagation, there is no 
reason why certain places in McLean county,—natural 
homes for the beavers,such as the two Strawberry Lakes, 
Crooked Lakes, and also places on Douglass, Snake, 
Buffalo Paunch and Painted Woods creeks, could not 
be made profitable investments. As any trapper who 
understands the art of beaver trapping, can secure them 
alive and without special harm,we may yet see some suc- 
cessful experiments at beaver farming in these parts.”’ 
The article above quoted received considerable atten- 
tion from the Leader’s exchanges,and from them to an 
outer circle until some enthusiastic scribe brought wheat 
from the chaff in the following which appeared in the 
Montreal News, during the same year: 
‘‘There are many kinds of stock farming in the world 
but perhaps the strangest of all is the farming of Can-. 
ada’s national animal in McLean county, North Dakota. 
Indeed, the chief industry of this section is the beaver 
farming. The county couldn’tbe profitably put to other 
use. The soil is unproductive. In fact, it is the sterile 
