48 ZOOLOGICAL 
in St. Louis and one in Montreal. Their letters 
are shown herewith, and all of the.a merit the 
most thoughtful consideration. The writers are 
thoroughly qualified to speak for this industry. 
Tue Fur Farmine ExprerRIMEeNtTs 
With perfectly commendable enterprise, and 
a desire to develop a new and valuable fur in- 
dustry, many good men have made studious and 
determined efforts to breed and rear fur-bearing 
animals in captivity. We have hoped for the 
success of these efforts, until hope seems to be 
in vain. 
One by one the fox, skunk, mink and marten 
have been tried, and the efforts with black, cross, 
red and blue foxes have been partially success- 
ful. The black fox industry on Prince Edward 
Island has attracted wide attention, but it has 
been almost wholly on account of the high prices 
charged and obtained for breeding pairs. Very 
few black foxes ever have been killed for their 
fur. Some dealers say that fur raised on fox 
farms is not popular in the fur trade because 
it lacks the brilliant lustre of the wild fur, and 
therefore must sell accordingly. 
The fur farmers who have tried skunks, mink 
and marten have encountered a long series of 
obstacles and discouragements, based chiefly 
upon the temperamental idiosyncrasies of those 
very difficult animals. The devouring of the 
young is the chief curse of this business, but 
there are others. 
I advise no one but my enemies to go into fur 
farming. Much as we would like to think other- 
wise, it is our opinion that with the exception of 
the beaver it never can amount to anything worth 
while. I think that as a factor in the mainte- 
nance of the supply of furs it should be set 
down as absolutely nil. 
Under certain conditions, beaver farming can 
be made successful—but I wish to give notice 
that I will not answer letters calling for the 
writing of letters of instruction on this subject. 
I am tired of replying to fur-breeding inquiries, 
and am entitled to a respite from them. 
NEWS FROM THE Fur TRADE 
Although “the fur trade” is showing a few 
signs of uneasiness regarding the future fur 
supply, I think that about 95 per cent of the 
dealers are asleep on the job. Funsten Brothers 
of St. Louis seem to be the men most widely 
awake on this subject, and most anxious to do 
something to stop waste and promote conserva- 
tion. They have issued some excellent warning 
circulars, all quite good as far as they go; but 
considering the subject of fur conservation as a 
SOCIETY BULLETIN 
whole, no man will dispute me when I say that 
thus far the surface of it has not even been 
scratched. 
In order to ascertain how the trade regards 
the subjects of fur extermination and conserya- 
tion, we called for expressions of opinion from 
four representative houses, and their replies are 
published herewith. They are valuable contri- 
butions to the scanty literature of this subject. 
Brineine Back tHe Fur-Bearers 
A letter from the Ganss Fur Company of New 
York, specialists in raw furs of North 
America, dated March 5, 1921. 
The subject of the conservation of fur- 
bearing animals is a very important one, both 
as regards the interests of the country at large 
and the interests of the fur trade. 
For years fur dealers all over the country 
have been favoring intelligent laws limiting 
the time of the trapping of fur-bearing ani- 
mals, but unfortunately the legislators of the 
different states have ignored the advice and 
suggestions given to them. To give you an 
instance, I would point to the efforts made 
by the Raw Fur Dealers’ Association of the 
State of New York two years ago when a new 
law was passed authorizing the hunting of 
raccoons on October Ist instead of November 
15th. The Raw Fur Dealers’ Association of 
the State of New York employed counsel and 
went to considerable expense to defeat this 
legislation, but their efforts did not avail and 
hunting of raccoons is now authorized to be- 
gin on October Ist. 
As the pelts of raccoon skins taken during 
the month of October are practically valueless, 
you can see what a useless waste has resulted 
from such legislation. 
Some of the Northwestern states, like Wis- 
consin and Minnesota, passed laws last sum- 
mer establishing a closed season on muskrats. 
I happened to read in a Western newspaper 
last week that in some of the counties of Min- 
nesota the Game Wardens had decided to lift 
the restriction on account of a very considera- 
ble increase in the number of muskrats which 
did considerable damage to the crops. 
In my opinion, a limiting of the time of 
catch of practically all fur-bearing animals is 
absolutely necessary in order to insure their 
permanency, and I think that no fur-bearing 
animals should be shot or trapped before No- 
vember 15th and after February 15th. The 
only exception to this rule should be the catch 
of the spring muskrats, which means an addi- 
tional hunting time for this animal toward the 
