NATURAL HISTORY. 



*37 



New York at the present time for $125 to 

 $175 each. The skins as they are sold from 

 the animal bring $1 to $2 each. The best 

 skins are those taken in the coldest winter 

 weather, and the oil is worth about 50 cents 

 a fluid ounce. If desired, the scent sacs 

 can be removed, and if properly done this 

 does not injure the animal or the fur, doing 

 away with all objectionable odor. This can 

 only be done safely in young animals. 



Skunks produce 6 to 9 young at a litter, . 

 breeding once a year. In farming, success 

 will depend almost wholly on the care the 

 animals receive. If you wish to fail read 

 the article on the Monroe county skunk 

 farm and follow their example. Begin on 

 a large scale, without experience, and be in 

 a hurry to get rich. If you wish to succeed 

 secure a single skunk, care for it, watch it 

 and learn its habits and requirements. If 

 you can keep it alive and in good condi- 

 tion get a mate and try breeding. If you 

 raise the young, get another pair, increasing 

 gradually, and you will succeed. 



It is possible in this industry, with work 

 and experience, to make a clear profit of 

 $10,000 a year on a farm of sufficient size, 

 properly handled. If you are in a hurry 

 to get rich and are not willing to work 

 hard, do not try skunk farming, or, in fact, 

 breeding of any kind ; but w T ith hard work 

 there is no more generally successful, pleas- 

 ant and interesting business. 



Skunks must be supplied constantly with 

 fresh water. Unless a pond or stream lies 

 within the inclosure, a well must be drilled 

 and an artificial pond kept filled with fresh 

 water. Water in basins will not answer. 

 This fresh water the Monroe county farm 

 did not possess. Then, too, each indi- 

 vidual skunk must have a separate hole, 

 supplied by digging trenches and covering 

 them with heavy boards, each hole 'Sup- 

 plied with a little straw with which to make 

 a nest. The dens used on the Monroe 

 county farm .not even rabbits would breed 

 in, to say nothing of skunks. 



About 50 skunks will thrive on an acre 

 of land, though crowding must never be 

 permitted. The food mentioned in the 

 article in November Recreation is all 

 right, and the fence was constructed in the 

 proper manner. With proper holes for 

 each animal, males and females need never 

 be separated, as the young will be raised 

 to maturity by the mother. The fences 

 must be examined daily to see that no 

 animal has gnawed an opening from the 

 outside from which the skunks may escape. 



The failure of the Monroe count}- skunk 

 farm by no means proves that skunk farm- 

 ing is unprofitable. Vast fortunes are lost 

 every year in the publishing business, but 

 that does not prove publishing unprofitable, 

 as millions are made every year in that 

 same business. Fortunes are lost every 

 year in business of all kinds, but as a rule 



it is simply the individual or company that 

 is proved a failure, not the business; and 

 so it is with skunk farming. 



A BIRD STORY. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 

 Editor Recreation : 



Until recently I was a firm believer in 

 the superior fighting powers of the English 

 sparrow. Indeed, was not everybody say- 

 ing that the English sparrow was driving 

 away the robins and all our other native 

 birds? About 2 years ago, however, I 

 had an opportunity to do a little observing 

 that has changed my mind in this matter. 



As I sat by my window reading, at the 

 time of which I speak, I became greatly 

 interested in a woodpecker which was bor- 

 ing into a dead tree that stood near. What 

 a gorgeous thing he was ! And how he 

 worked ! The themometer 'had reached a 

 most discouraging height; yet with his feet 

 hooked over the edge of the hole and with 

 his tail braced firmly against the tree, he 

 threw out the white shavings at a rate 

 that made me wonder whether birds ever 

 get warm, as people do. 



At last the hole was finished ; at least it 

 was large enough for him to get inside to 

 work. One day he came ; but instead of 

 jumping in, he perched on the edge and 

 turning his .head sidewise in bird fashion, 

 looked in. I wondered in an idle warm- 

 weather way why he didn't go in. Just 

 then he did. There was a moment of si- 

 lence, and then a squawking as of a hen 

 caught in a fence. Immediately my wood- 

 pecker appeared at the edge of the hole, 

 holding in his beak, which to my some- 

 what excited eyes looked as large as a pair 

 of scissors, an English sparrow. With a 

 vicious fling, the woodpecker threw the 

 squalling sparrow to the ground. Then, 

 after waiting a moment as though to make 

 sure the sorry-looking bunch of brown 

 feathers was getting away as fast as it 

 could, he flew off. 



I was so amused by this woodpecker 

 who was not building houses for English 

 sparrows that I told a friend about him. 

 This friend is a man who is so fond of 

 'birds that he keeps, during the summer, a 

 great basin of water standing in the shade 

 of a tree for their especial benefit. In re- 

 turn for my story he told me one that 

 pointed to the same conclusion ; namely, 

 that English sparrows are not the only 

 feathered fighters. 



One day 10 or 12 robins were disporting 

 themselves on the edge of the basin of 

 water. Presently a blue jay jumped down 

 softly from a higher place in the tree to a 

 branch just over the basin. He was still 

 a moment ; then he hopped down to the 

 edge of the water. The robins, surprised 

 and frightened, flew away, leaving the 

 saucy bluecoat in possession. 



