SOME PROBLEMS OF THE FOX-RAISING INDUSTRY. 



Introduction. 



The business of fox-breeding, which in the years before the 

 Great War was little more than a speculative adventure, is today 

 a solid commercial enterprise, success in which depends entirely 

 iipon the number and quality of the pelts actually sold. In this 

 character it has already attained a truly surprising magnitude. 

 In Prince Edward Island alone there are about 275 fox farms with, 

 it is conservatively .estimated, at least 4,000 pairs of breeding 

 foxes. During the season 1918-19 there were offered for sale, 

 at prices ranging mostly' from $250 to $l,00b, approximately 

 5,000 skins, and the total revenue of the Island from this source 

 must therefore have been little short of $1,000,000. When it is 

 considered that this, province is not the only, one in which foxes 

 are raised for their fur (ranches have been established also in New 

 Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, etc.), and when it is 

 further realized that the peltfe produced are practically all exported, 

 it becomes evident that the industry may justly claim not merely 

 a local, but a national importance, which is very far indeed froiii 

 being negligible. Needless to say, it has not reached this status 

 without encountering a variety of difificult problems. It is the 

 purpose of the following pages to inquire into the nature of these, 

 and to consider whether it would be profitable, and in what manner 

 it might be possible, to attempt their solution. 



I. The Average Yield and the Possibility, of, Its > 



Improvement. . ■;!■•/ 



It can hardly be doubted that under ejfisting circum&tances 

 the, returns of the industry are on the average lower than- they 

 need be. It is, to be, sure, impossible to ascertain with exactness 

 either the total number of fox pups born in a given year, or the 

 total number raised to maturity; but the information available 

 Virould suggeist that the 4,000 pairs of adult foxes in Prince Edward 

 Island raised successfully last year not much more than 5,000 



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