THE FUR, LEATHER AND HIDE TRADES 73 



and keep all domestic animals from the vicinity of the pens during 

 the breeding season, and in some places laws prohibit strangers from 

 approaching fox farms without permission of the owners. 



Though there are vicissitudes that make fur farming uncertain, 

 many such enterprises, carefully conducted, under favorable circum- 

 stances, have yielded very large profits. In 1918 one Prince Edward 

 Island fur farmer sold $14,000 worth of pelts from his farm. 53 In 

 1924, six fox farms sold 1541 skins for $215,740 (average price 

 $140) and in 1925 they sold 4089 pelts at an average price of $132, 

 the highest price for a single skin being $52O. 54 There are now about 

 2500 fur farmers in the United States and Alaska, mostly silver or blue 

 fox, with a total investment of $15,000,000 to $18,000,000, and 

 2130 in Canada, with an investment of $13, 240,245. 55 It was estimated 

 that in 1923 there were 15,000 silver foxes in captivity, 56 an estimate 

 now much too low. 



Prior to 1910 there were very few fox farms and few breeding 

 foxes were for sale. Then the breeders discovered that they could get 

 much larger prices for the well-bred live foxes for breeding purposes 

 than for the pelts, and began to place breeding stock on the market. 

 Within two years they rose in price from $3,000 to $15,000; one pair 

 sold in 1912 for $20,000 and others were quoted at a value of 

 $35,000 a pair, while one fine skin sold in London for $2,8 17. 57 During 

 the World War there was a slump, but a few years later "pure-blood, 

 registered silver foxes" were selling alive for from $10,000 to 

 $35,000 a pair, and breeding stock of Persian lambs were quoted at 

 from $500 to $10,000 a pair. 58 It is no wonder that some fur-farm 

 breeding stocks "get the care of millionaire babies," as Miss Laut 

 picturesquely puts it. 



In 1921 blue foxes were selling at $20 a pair and skins ran from 

 $75 up, while white fox pelts did 'not exceed $60. Breeding mink 

 stock at the same time was selling for $30 to $300 a pair. 59 



53 Laut, The fur trade of America, p. 65, 1921. 



54 Ashbrook, Fur farming for profit, p. 19, 1928. 



55 Ashbrook, Fur farming for profit, p. 24, 1928; Silver fox farming, U. S. Dept. 

 Agric. Bull. No. 1151, 1923; Journ. Mammalogy, m, 1-7, 1922. See also Ashbrook 

 and Earnshaw, Farmers' Bull., No. 1469, pp. 3-4, 1925. Ashbrook and Walker, Blue 

 fox farming in Alaska, U. S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 1350, 1925. Dearborn, Silver 

 fox farming in eastern United States, ibid., No. 301, 1915. Osgood, Silver fox farm- 

 ing, Farmers' Bull, No. 328, 1909. California Fish and Game, m, 80, 1917; vn, 164- 

 165, 1920. 



56 Ashbrook, address quoted in California Fish and Game, ix, 161, 1923. 



57 Jones, Fur farming in Canada, pp. 14-15, 49, in, 1913. 



58 Laut, The fur trade of America, Foreword, p. ix; also pp. 52, 54, 55, 1921. 



59 Laut, The fur trade of America, pp. 63, 102, 1921. 



