FUR FACTS 99 



How large and where to build your enclosure must be decided 

 by yourself and will depend entirely on your particular conditions. 

 A wooded bluff is an ideal place, and if you can, have it within sight 

 of your house so that you can guard against poachers. 



The mating season is usually in the early part of March and the 

 young are born in the latter part of April or the beginning of May. 

 Raccoon will eat almost anything, is fond of vegetables, likes fish, 

 frogs, turtles, oysters, nuts, acorns, grapes, sweet corn, honey, 

 will eat poultry if he can get it, and destroys all the bugs and in- 

 sects he can find. They usually sleep during the day and prowl 

 around at night. They are very clean in their habits. Some authori- 

 ties believe that raccoon can be raised more successfully than most 

 of the other fur bearers. They are very hardy, and where they are 

 kept in the zoos or public parks, they live for many years and seem 

 to thrive under conditions that are far from being ideal for any 

 wild animal. A few acres of timbered land well fenced and with 

 plenty of good fresh water, stocked with a few pair of raccoon will 

 prove a profitable investment. Raccoon fur is advancing in price 

 from year to year and will always be in demand. Its fur will always 

 have a market value, and in some sections of the South its meat is 

 prized highly as food. Therefore with the high price of the skin 

 and with the carcass also having a food value, there is no reason 

 why the raccoon should not be one of the most profitable farm 

 animals that the farmer could raise, and is well worth the careful 

 attention of every farmer that has a piece of land suitable for 

 the purpose. 



But whether you go in for fur farming or not, champion the 

 cause of setting aside a district in your county as a game preserve 

 and have that district protected by a game warden in order that 

 no trapping will be done on this ground. Allow trapping only in 

 the districts surrounding the game preserve, and this will insure 

 big catches and profitable catches and a large and constant supply. 



Trapping Raccoon 



The raccoon likes to have his den in hollow trees, and in the 

 openings and rocky bluffs, and sleeps during the day and prowls 

 around at night. The raccoon is very curious and will go to a great 

 deal of trouble to investigate anything that arouses his curiosity. 

 He likes to investigate bright shiny objects and often gets caught 

 by reason of this fact. Many trappers use the Funsten Radiolite 

 Fish for trapping raccoon. This is a piece of tin stamped out in the 



