HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
form grades A and A bis; those with a large 
amount of which are graded as D and D bis. 
Furriers get rid of the white stripes by cutt- 
ing them out and, with great skill, sewing the 
black parts together again; the white strips then 
come in useful for furs of inferior quality. Our 
colleague, M. Diguet, tells us that in Mexico 
Skunks with white backs and tails are most in 
demand; but these animals are of a different species 
from the Skunks of the more northern parts of 
America, and belong to the genus Conepatus, 
whose stench-producing apparatus has been 
studied by M. Chatin, and proves to be exactly 
like that of the United States Skunk. 
In all industries there are produced waste or 
by-products which should not be neglected, for 
they may be prudently and economically employed. 
Just as in a large kennel the droppings are care- 
fully collected for use in tanning, so> in a Skunk- 
farm of any size the excrement of these weases 
constitutes a good manure. The meat of the 
Skunks might serve as a wholesome article of 
food, as may be seen by the use of it by the Red- 
skins, if prejudice did not prevent its being put 
on the town markets; but as the animals are very 
fat when in good condition, an oil is extracted 
from them which is much in demand for soap- 
making, and is even said to be a fine remedy for 
rheumatism. The muscular fibre, after all the fat 
has been boiled out of it, is kiln-dried an^i used in 
making dog biscuits and poultry food. Of course, 
if the Skunks utilized in this way have not been 
disarmed during life, the anal glands must be 
carefully extracted first of all, or they would taint 
with their stench everything they were mixed 
with. 
Mr. Seton has shown that, starting a Skunk- 
farm with five males and twenty females, one 
can have in five years a stock of 800 females and 
200 males for breeding, the produce of which, 
after deducting depreciation of capital, initial ex- 
penses of plant, and expenses of attendance and 
food, should show a profit of 14,000' dollars or 
70,000 francs. Mr. Seton, who has set forth this 
budget with a fulness of detail on which I cannot 
enter here, admits that he has not taken into ac- 
count the possibilities of epidemics and of the fall 
in value of the furs, and he confesses that Skunk- 
farming has never as yet been undertaken on such 
a big scale; but he has based his calculations on 
the results of his own experience in farming Foxes 
and Skunks on a smaller scale. Mr. Seton's fur- 
farm at Greenwich, Connecticut, only embraces 
about 2,000 square metres at present, but he owns 
enough land all round to be able to extend it, 
and next summer it will be enlarged by the addi- 
tion of several 2,000 metre enclosures. His actual 
enclosure is surrounded by a palisade 2l^ metres 
'high; the soil is suitably dry and planted with 
trees which will provide the shade necessary in 
very hot weather. Sixtv-five adult Skunks are 
kept on this farm, of which 50 are females, which 
there is every reason to expect, will produce at 
least 200 young during the coming season. 
It is from Mr. Seton's Skunk-farm that the 
four Skunks came which could have been seen at 
the beginning of last year at the shop-front of M. 
Ruze's great fur emporium, at the street corner 
between Rue de la Chaussee d'Autin and the Bou- 
levard Haussmann. After creating lively interest 
among passers-by, these animals were offered by 
M. Ruze to the Jardin d'Acclimatation, where, 
unfortunately, it has so far proved impossible to 
get them to breed. 
Last year, Mr. Seton having been perforce 
away from home, his keepers fed the animals on 
meat only, with the result that when spring came 
they were much out of condition, and many of the 
dams devoured their litters as soon as they had 
dropped them. We know that wrong feeding 
similarly disposes Rabbits to eat their young. The 
same mishap has occurred to some people in 
England to whom Mr. Seton had sent Skunks 
with the idea of introducing this branch of fur- 
farming into> Great Britain. 
Such vexations would be surely avoided by 
breeders who should follow the practical instruc- 
tions which Mr. Seton has recently given in the 
remarkable series of articles which he has pub- 
lished in the A mer i can magazine, " Forest and 
Stream," the author, w!k> had already given us, 
in two fine volumes, the " Life-histories of North- 
ern x\nimals," enters, in these fresh researches, 
into the most minute details on the method of 
making the enclosures and the way to look after 
the animals, the industrial exploitation of which 
has made such strides during the last few years 
that we may expect to see the skins of fur-bearing 
animals raised in domestication compete in the 
fur-trade with the products of the hunting of the 
wild animals, the number of which is daily decreas- 
ing. 
The fetid odour of the Skunk's anal glands 
is not the only offence laid to its charge. It has 
been said that its bite communicate drabies, and, 
in 1874 — 75, several American medical men re- 
ported a certain number of cases of hydrophobia 
in Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, 
Colorado, and Texas, which they attributed to 
bites inflicted by our subject. However, as these 
cases of hydrophobia did not manifest themselves 
with the same symptoms as those which charac- 
terize canine rabies, the practitioners who had 
notified this new disease called it "rabies mephi- 
tica" (Skunk-rabies), and thought that there was 
some correlation between the anal secretion of the 
Skunk and the virus of its saliva. These obser- 
vations, which Coves has detailed in his mono- 
graph of the Weasel family, attaching great impor- 
tance to them, do not see into us to rest on a firm 
foundation, and, on this subject, Mr. Seton writes 
to us : — 
