The carcasses are used for food, being shipped frozen by the millions 

 in refrigerator boats to England, and constitute a very important 

 meat supply. 



So far as trapping is concerned, all the trapping that could be done 

 in Australia would never keep pace with the increase of the rabbits. 

 It is only extreme measures such as wholesale poisoning or immense 

 drives that will cut them down in numbers. As before mentioned 

 there was no other wild life to destroy the rabbit and from their small 

 beginning in a few years they increased to countless numbers. 



The man, and the farmer boy, in the country has come to realize 

 that the small fur bearer is a valuable asset, and he should value 

 them in much the same way that he does any other live stock. It is 

 hoped that the suggestions in this book will help to further this 

 thought. It is the desire of the real trapper to take only the super- 

 fluous males. A few animals, like the fox and the mink, are monog- 

 amous, but for the most part the male furbearers fight for a harem, 

 and when these fights are on, the young are killed and torn and the 

 females are injured, and the full grown young males are left in the 

 majority to prey on one another. The trapper has come to realize 

 that his source of profit is dependent on the increase in the number of 

 the furbearers in his district. He only wants to trap when the fur is 

 prime, when the females are not bearing young, and when the yojing 

 are full grown. He plans his trapping so that the animal will be 

 killed quickly and not injure the fur, and if he is well informed he will 

 never use poisoned bait under any circumstances, for the reason 

 that it kUls the old and young alike and is a wasteful and profit- 

 less method. 



In addition to the killing that goes constantly on between wild 

 animals, dogs are also very destructive, and this fact will be vouched 

 for by any sheep raiser. Dogs destroy quantities of sheep and fur- 

 bearers every year. 



As one authority has pointed out, it was not the fur trapper that 

 exterminated the buffalo, it was the sport hunter and the barbed wire 

 fence of the settler, and it was the fur trade that saved the buffalo from 

 total extermination and brought it back, as they have done with the 

 beaver and other fur bearers. A few years ago one of the rarest furs in 

 the world was the silver fox. A short time ago the writer visited a 

 silver fox farm on which there were over eight hundred young foxes 

 that had been raised within one year. This ranch was started with 

 three young foxes. Some of the finest silver foxes that have ever come 

 to market have come from fox farms, which proves conclusively 

 that fine quality furs can be raised successfully. 



