BEAVER HABITS, BEAVEE COXTEOL, AND BE AVER FARMING. 29 



creasing in numbers, but most of the animals are the western, pale, 

 native varieties, worth much less than the choice, dark, prime fur 

 bearers which might be introduced from other sections. Improving 

 the system of stocking, management, and control will place beavers 

 among our valuable forest products. 



Cleared timherlands. — Another fertile field for beaver culture 

 could be found in connection with projects for the reforestation 

 with conifers of burned and cut-over timberlands. Many of these 

 areas, cleared by ax or fire, and later covered with a second growth 

 of aspen, willow, and pin cherry, are considered alrnost worthless. 

 Over much of the northern border of the United States and still 

 larger areas in Canada, such land is generally unsuited for agri- 

 culture and would not pay taxes until again covered with valuable 

 forest timber, but would supply ideal food for beavers, and if stocked 

 with these animals could be made to yield an income while the process 

 of reforestation is going on. Not only could many limited areas of 

 private land be thus reclaimed, instead of, as is so often the case, 

 being relinquished as not worth their taxes, but State and Federal 

 lands of this type could also be utilized for the double industry of 

 fur and forest production. 



Arctic waste lands. — There is a still more extensive field for beaver 

 culture in the more northern areas of Canada and Alaska, bej^ond 

 the commerciallj^ valuable forest timber, but where aspens and wil- 

 lows are an abundant part of the natural forest growth and where 

 beavers were once so numerous as to yield annually millions of dollars 

 worth of fur. If instead of the old policy of encouraging the ex- 

 termination of animals by a wild scramble to get their skins, definite 

 areas in these parts should be leased or sold to individuals or. com- 

 panies for raising, beavers under control, as private property, this 

 once valuable fur region would again become productive and develop 

 related industries. 



