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BULLETIN 1350, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGEICULTUEE. 



As dressed fish must be carried or otherwise conveyed to the smoke- 

 house, distance is an item to be considered. The size of the house 

 depends upon the quantity of feed required. The one shown in Fig- 

 ure 11 serves an island on which are 40 pairs of foxes. 



Foxes should not be killed and pelted in the building where feed 

 is stored or prepared; if necessary, a special shed should be built 

 for the purpose. Such use of the feed house would not be sanitary and, 

 in addition, it would favor the chances of transmission of disease. 



Structures*' for temporary occupancy, such as are required for 

 injured, sick, or newly purchased foxes, may be comparatively small. 

 The style and method of construction will depend upon the location 

 and lay of the land. A temporary pen used for the purpose may be 

 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 6 feet high. A frame of 2 by 4 ma- 

 terial is entirely covered by ]^To. 15-gauge wire netting of li'2-inch 



mesh, with a small door in the 

 front. As the pen rests di- 

 rectly on the gTound, it is well 

 to cover the floor wire with 

 sand or fine gravel and earth. 

 This material should be re- 

 moved frequently and clean 

 dirt substituted to prevent 

 contamination. A small nest 

 box should be placed inside 

 the pen, or outside and con- 

 nected with it by a chute. 



TRAP-FEED HOUSES 



Trap-feed houses should be 

 erected at various points, the 

 number and the distance apart 

 depending on the size and 

 topography of the island as 

 well as on the number of foxes 

 ranched. They provide a 

 place where foxes may eat un- 

 molested by eagles, ravens, and 

 crows; and v\diere they may be captured uninjured for marking or 

 examination, and when prime (fig. 13). They may be built of 

 material at hand on the island ; but dressed lumber makes a neater 

 job, and houses so constructed are much more easily cleaned. These 

 houses should have a floor measurement of at least 6 by 8 feet and 

 be high enough to permit a man to stand upright. 



There are two types of trap-feed houses. In one the foxes enter 

 through a trap chute and eat on the floor of the house. In the 

 other they eat on an upper floor and fall to the ground floor when 

 they spring the trap (fig. 14). 



Figure 15 shows the first-mentioned type of trap-feed house with 

 the trap installed. This trap, however, can be made to fit a house 

 of almost any size or shape (fig. 16). A detailed drawing of the 



* Information which will be helpful to those constmcting pens for i-aising' blue foxes 

 is contained in U. S. Dept. Agr. Bulletin No. 1151, " Silver-Fox Farming." Blue prints 

 of plans for constructing pens and dens may also be obtained free on application to U. S, 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D, C. 



Fig. 12.- — The five-tiered smokehouse illus- 

 trated will smoke and store about 5,000 

 salmon 



