III. Further Considerations Affecting the Returns of 

 THE Industry. 



Tha problem of reaching and maintaining a maximum return 

 involves more than the successful rearing to maturity of every 

 fox that may happen to be born. It is of equal importance that 

 the number born should be as great as the nature of the case 

 makes possible. This implies that in any complete study of the 

 problems of fox-raising questions of fertility and fecundity must 

 be taken into account. These are undoubtedly in part questions 

 of nutrition, .but other .factors: — hereditary, psychical, climato- 

 Ipgical, etc., — are also in varying degrees involved, and it would 

 be desirable to have their relative importance more exactly eluci- 

 dated. -, 



A not irrelevant question is that of the proper age for the first 

 reproductive effort of the adolescent animal. It has become the 

 practice to mate the foxes selected for breeding purposes at the 

 earliest possible moment, that is, in the winter following their 

 birth, while they are yet less than. a year old. It is very doubtful 

 whether this is a practice to be recommended, and it should be 

 considered whether it would not in the long run be more economical 

 to postpone mating till the animals reach their second winter. A 

 series of comparative tests might be planned to throw light upon 

 this problem. 



Again, mere numbers is not chough. The final aim of the 

 fox-industry is the production, not so much of perfectly nourished 

 and healthy animals, as of valuable pelts. These are by no means 

 necessarily the same thing. A red fox may b'e physiologically as 

 perfect an animal as it is possible to conceive ; in the market value 

 of its fur dt may be far surpassed by a pure-bred silver fox exhib- 

 iting the worst deformities of rickets. The fox in captivity is 

 bred in short for certain special characters, and a failure to present 

 these in perfection is as definitely a source of loss to the owner^ 

 as early death, from malnutrition. Beside the fundamental 

 problem of nutritibn we must place therefore the fundamental 

 problem of breeding and inheritance. The more important 

 aspects of t?his problem, as related to tfie fox industry, will be 

 discussed in another publication of the Research Council. 



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