72 Imports, Exports and Restrictions. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 



The total value of the dressed skins and manufactures 

 thereof shipped into the United States from foreign ports 

 during the calendar year 1912 was $7,973,480, and the 

 value of the raw skins imported that year was $17,708,663. 

 The receipts from Germany, were valued at $8,863,991 ; 

 from England, at $4,652,687 ; from Prance, at $3,617,752 ; 

 from Belgium, at $2,486,246; and those from all other 

 countries at $6,051,358. 



The value of the domestic furs and skins exported dur- 

 ing the same year was $16,297,938; fifty per cent of the 

 total going to England and her possessions, forty per cent 

 to Germany, and ten per cent to various other countries. 



RESTRICTIONS. 



Full particulars as to the restrictions placed upon the 

 slaughter of fur seals, and the introduction of fur seal 

 skins and garments into the United States from foreign 

 parts, appear in the chapter on Fur Seals. The govern- 

 ment also regulates the killing of arctic foxes on the 

 Islands in the Bering Sea, and from time to time has 

 established closed seasons for the protection of the beaver 

 and other animals to secure the conservation of some of 

 the valuable North American fur producers; and a num- 

 ber of states have established closed seasons for different 

 animals. 



The Russian government has recently declared a closed 

 season for Sables in; Siberia, the Chinchilla is being 

 protected in Bolivia, and restrictions have been placed 

 upon the slaughter of Sea Otters, and various other valu- 

 able fur producers in different parts of the world that 

 have been decreasing in numbers because of a steadily 

 increasing demand for their skins. On the other hand 

 the restrictions placed upon the killing of a number of 

 other animals have been removed because of the rapidity 

 with which the species have increased under a protective 

 policy. 



The Canadian authorities were among the first to estab- 

 lish closed seasons for the conservation of fur bearing 

 animals that were threatened with extermination, and 

 Otter, Beaver, Fisher, Sable and Mink can only be taken 

 at certain seasons in most of the provinces of Canada. 



