THE MONROE COUNTY SKUNK FARM. 



M. L. MICHAEL. 



Figuring from the premise that 200 

 female skunks in 6 years of captivity would 

 increase to 1,228,800, led me, in company 

 with W. W. Blanchard, Ira M. Taylor 

 and F. W. Blanchard, all of Newark, N. 

 J., to buy the Samuel Michael farm, in 

 Middle Smithfield township, Monroe 

 county, Pa., October 2d, '91, for $6,500, for 

 the express" purpose of experimenting in 

 growing skunks. 



We obtained a charter from the State, 

 and the corporation styled itself The Mon- 

 roe Farming Company, Limited. We 

 opened an office near the farm, November 

 2d, '91, for the purchase of live black 

 skunks. By vigorous advertising and 

 sending a few expert trappers into dis- 

 tricts where the animals were numerous, 

 we soon obtained the required number. 

 We bought one male to 10 females, paying 

 usually $2.50 to $3 for fine black speci- 

 mens. A black skunk is one having no 

 white back of the shoulder excepting the 

 tip of the tail. A temporary pen 80 feet 

 by 120 feet was constructed, in which to 

 keep the skunks till spring. Early in 

 April, '92, a trench 3 feet deep was dug 

 around a 20 acre piece of hillside land 

 sloping to the sun. In this ditch were set 

 posts 8 feet apart, to which we stretched 

 and stapled galvanized wire netting 8 feet 

 wide with one inch meshes. This, placed 

 with one edge at the bottom of the ditch, 

 made a tight fence 5 feet above the sur- 

 face. The trench was then filled and 

 tamped hard. Next a 12 inch hemlock 

 board was strung along the tops of the 

 posts inside and out. This was to keep 

 the skunks in and other animals out 

 Then we turned to the construction of 

 numerous dens throughout the park, as 

 this enclosure was called. 



These dens were made of heavy oak 

 planks, or of stone, of various patterns 

 and styles, but the prevailing size was 4 

 feet x 10 feet, placed below frost line. A 

 hall ran the whole length of the den, with 

 openings into rooms 2 feet x 2 feet x 2 

 feet. Each den had leading to it a tunnel 

 12 to 15 feet long and 12 inches square, so 

 inclined as to give gravity drainage to 

 the interiaor. Over the mouth of each 

 tunnel, as cold weather approached, was 

 placed a thick cloth, to exclude the cold; 

 and many other minor matters looking to 

 the comfort and safety of the inmates re- 

 ceived our attention. 



When all was completed, about April 

 20th, the big park received its fragrant 

 population, about 300 skunks. Previous to 

 that we had discovered they were partial 



to a meat diet, and especially to poultry. 

 Beef, lamb or pork would be discarded at 

 any time for chicken. Fish were also pop- 

 ular food. Occasionally thawed frozen 

 apples would be lightly eaten during the 

 winter; and now and then in summer a 

 dessert of berries or wild plums. Bugs, 

 crickets and grubs of all kinds were chosen 

 delicacies on their bill of fare, and in 

 search of these they kept their 20 acre in- 

 closure as thoroughly plowed over as any 

 farmer could have done it. As a rooter the 

 skunk is equal to the pig, and spends the 

 whole night overturning flat stones, chips, 

 bark, rooting in the toughest sods and dig- 

 ging in old logs for insects and larvae. He 

 is strictly a nocturnal animal, and if seen 

 abroad in daytime there is generally ur- 

 gent cause. 



The young are born in May or June in 

 this latitude. A warm, open winter will 

 bring this about 30 days earlier. Old 

 skunks anticipate the young in these 

 events. The young of mature skunks 

 have finer, better fur than the progeny of 

 younger animals, and their pelts are larger 

 and more valuable. The females bear but 

 once a year, their litters numbering 6 to 

 16; 70 to 80 per cent, of these being fe- 

 males. In buying our stock originally 

 from the trappers, although we had not 

 specified the proportions desired of males 

 to females, the results did not vary much 

 from the above average. 



The first year brought no increase in 

 our stock, but rather a falling off, by nat- 

 ural deaths. This was entirely unexpected. 

 We looked for 2,000 in '92. No reason could 

 be assigned for it, but we decided to keep 

 a closer watch in the spring and summer 

 of '93. This revealed the fact that the 

 skunk is a cannibal. Though we kept 

 them abundantly supplied with the choicest 

 food, and conducted water from a cold 

 mountain spring through iron pipes to 

 their dens, we found that the males, par- 

 ticularly, destroyed the young as fast as 

 born. It was a common thing to see a 

 mother rush from her nest carrying her 

 baby in her mouth, pursued by other 

 members of the family. This was a start- 

 ling discovery. 



Our hopes of gathering a fortune by 

 rearing this valuable little animal in cap- 

 tivity began to sink, but still the sanguine 

 ones in the enterprise proposed another 

 endeavor to regain our lost ground. 



It was certain that the males were the 

 chief destroyers of the young. Why not 

 separate them from the females after the 

 breeding? The suggestion was so reason- 



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