IV. Recommendations. 



The preceding paragraphs have indicated the existfence, in 

 connection with the fox-breeding industry, of a large variety of 

 unsolved problems. Their final solution must await the outcome 

 of appropriately planned experiments. The informatiori collected 

 is however already sufficient td" suggest certain improvements in 

 existing practice. These may for convenience be thrown together, 

 here in the form of recommendations addressed to the fox-breeder. 



1. An endeavour should be made to supply in the diet more 

 fat, a certain amount of green vegetables, and especially more 

 milk, the fat of which ought not to be removed. A special 

 endeavour should be made to feed milk during the winter, in which 

 attempt the possible usefulness of whole milk powder should be 

 remembered. The winter diet should also contain liberal amounts of 

 tripe, liver, and eggs. Raw apples should be fed whenever it is 

 possible to obtain them, as well as, if they prove acceptable to the 

 foxes, raw potatoes or turriips. 



2. A lump of rock salt should be placed in each pen. 



3. The adult foxes should be treated for worms in the''fall, 

 and an endeavour should be made to exterminate all eggs in the 

 pens before mating takes place. 



4. All wild or domestic animals should be rigidly excluded 

 from the neighbourhood of the pens. 



5. Each ranch should maintain a small quarantine station 

 and isolation hospital. 



6. Cbld storage plants should be provided for the different 

 sections of the island, and provision should be made for the 

 careful inspection of. all meat fed to foxes. 



7. It would probably be wise to abandon the practice of mating 

 young foxes in their first year of life. < 



8. The fox-breeders should form an association for the regisr 

 tration of their valuable animals, and each should maintain . a 

 continuous record of the actual performance of its stoqk, 



12 



