90 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



receives half the fur caught, while the trapper 

 gets the other half and all he can realize from 

 the sale of the meat. In the short season of 

 seventy-four days, January 1 to March 15, dur- 

 ing 1908 and 1909, trappers easily made from 

 $400 to $900 each. 



The demand for the meat is growing, and all 

 of it is utilized. The Baltimore market takes 

 about 30,000 animals during a season, the bulk 

 of which come from Dorchester County, Va. 



The editor of the Cambridge Record, a local 

 newspaper, stated (1909) that the muskrat in- 

 dustry of Dorchester brings into the county 

 about $100,000 annually. This would indicate 

 that about a quarter-million of the animals are 

 trapped each season. The danger of exhaust- 

 ing the supply by continued close trapping has 

 been discussed in Dorchester County, but trap- 

 pers there maintain that with the long closed 

 season, March 15 to January 1, little ground for 

 anxiety on this score exists. However, it is 

 worth keeping in mind. 



Possibilities of this business. There are 

 many places in all the eastern half of the 

 United States where a similar industry might 



