THE GAME BREEDER 



9 



foxes in domestication, with a clearer 

 understanding of their successful man- 

 agement, and with a return of moderate 

 prices for breeders, a steady, healthy and 

 general development of silver fox farm- 

 ing may be expected. 



Fox ranches are established in most 

 of the Canadian Provinces and in Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New 

 York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, 

 Washington and Alaska. In 1913 there 

 were 277 fox ranches on Prince Edward 

 Island alone. There foxes have the same 

 status as other domestic animals in be- 

 ing subject to taxation; this in 1913 

 yielded the Province a revenue of $37,- 

 172. In a recent report written from 

 Charlottetown by Consul Livingston T. 

 Mays the number of domestic silver 

 foxes on Prince Edward Island in April, 

 1914, was given as about 1,600, and in 

 the following December as about 2,600, 

 the increase for the year being approxi- 

 mately 66 per cent., or considerably be- 

 low the average increase of former years. 

 The value of the foxes on this island at 



the close of 1913, as estimated by the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, was over 

 $15,000,000. A report of the provincial 

 secretary, issued May 7, 1914, shows that 

 there had been incorporated in the Prov- 

 ince up to that time 196 fur-farming 

 companies, nearly all of which were de- 

 voted to fox raising, carrying an author- 

 ized capitalization of $24,305,700. In 

 December, 1914, the United States consul 

 on Prince Edward Island reported that 

 the capitalization had reached $31,500,- 

 000. From the foregoing it is evident 

 that anyone contemplating an investment 

 in fox farming, either directly or in the 

 stock of an organized company, should 

 first carefully consider all values in their 

 relation to the actual returns possible 

 from the average increase of the breed- 

 ing stock. As pointed out elsewhere in 

 this bulletin, prices of both live silver 

 foxes and fox pelts are now far below 

 prices paid a few years ago. The busi- 

 ness of fox breeding will be on a much 

 more stable basis than at present when 

 the value of breeding animals bears an 

 approximate relation to the value of their 

 pelts in the open market. \ 



WALLACE EVANS GAME FARM. 



Wood Duck in Large Numbers and Pheasants Reared Near St. 



Charles, 111. 



1 raise every year large numbers of the 

 different varieties of wild ducks, espe- 

 cially wood ducks. Last season I raised 

 over twelve hundred young wood ducks, 

 and this spring I expect to raise more 

 still as I am keeping over an extra large 

 breeding stock, and the natural lakes and 

 running water on our new farm seems 

 tc be well adapted for the raising of 

 the rarer varieties of wild ducks, 



All my wood hens last year averaged 

 about thirty eggs each, and I expect to 

 get even more this season. I also breed 

 quite a number of Mandarin ducks, the 

 hens of this variety seldom lay over ten 

 •or twelve eggs in a season, which are 

 generally very fertile and the birds are 

 strong and very easy to raise. 



I have never done very much with 

 black mallards, as there seems to be very 

 little demand for them, and it hardly 

 pays to keep a large flock of breeders; 

 real wild black mallards in captivity 

 seldom lay over twenty eggs to a bird 

 even when they are forced with the cor- 

 rect kind of foods. 



I have never succeeded in getting Blue 

 Wing Teal to lay over sixteen or eighteen 

 eggs, no matter how carefully they are 

 fed, and the same applies to the Green 

 Wing and the Gargany. I usually lift 

 part of the eggs from the different va- 

 rieties of wild ducks and hatch them 

 under chickens, except in the wood 

 ducks and mallards. These, of course, 

 are all raised with chickens. 



