PREPARING SKINS FOR MANUFACTURE 121 



The best stretched skins are those that are extended very slightly in 

 all directions. Mink and marten should be pulled slightly lengthwise 

 and the lines of the sides should be only slightly converging. A stretch- 

 ing board may be split and a wedge inserted between the two sides 

 will adjust it to any size of skin. 



. Valuable pelts are sewed up in muslin and expressed to 

 Skins destination. When shipped by express care should be 



taken to have the agent mark the full value of the skins on 

 the receipt to ensure recovery of value if lost. When packing skins do 

 not roll them; pack flat and then sew them up neatly in burlap. They 

 should be wi'apped in paper first. Label the package inside and out- 

 side to make identification certain. Skins must be packed dry and 

 must be kept dry. 



If all the pelts taken in Canada were prime and were properly 

 stretched, dried and marketed, the increase in value woiold amount to 

 millions. Nearly fifty per cent of the pelts of some species are blue, 

 or (springy) or with hair rubbed off or falling out. The competition be- 

 tween trappers is producing more and more blue pelts, which cannot 

 grade above No. 2. Conservation of fur would be achieved if it were 

 illegal to kill except when the pelts are prime. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that only personal ownership of the fur-bearers would ensure nearly 

 100 per cent of the pelts marketed being prime. 



The fur moth also causes immense losses. Modern refrigeration, 

 however, has solved this problem by providing cold storage chambers 

 for furs stored in the warm season. 



All seal and Persian lamb skins go through a process of 

 o/futI dyeing. Seal skin, after the water hair is plucked, is of a 



drab colour, but expert English dyers make it a dark, brown- 

 ish black. As German dye excels in fastness of colour and in leaving 

 the skins supple after treatment, the Persian lamb skins are mostly 

 dyed in Germany. The French are very skillful in 'topping' where 

 the overhair is made to imitate sable. Latterly, the Germans have de- 

 veloped a large trade in 'pointed fox,' which is an ordinary cheap fox . 

 dyed black, and afterwards 'pointed' by sewing in white hairs.^ The 

 German dyed article is quite durable in colour; but it, again, is imi- 

 tated by furriers in America, who colour with ordinary black dye and 

 glue in badger hairs. In a few months the difference in the quality of 

 the dye used is revealed. Good dyes— such as those developed in Eng- 

 land for seals and in Germany for lambs— are likely to remain trade 

 secrets. 



The dressing and dyeing of furs in Canada is nearly all performed 



