UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



lUf BULLETIN No. 1078 Wm- 



Washington, D. C. ▼ October 18, 1922 



BEAVER HABITS, BEAVER CONTROL, AND 

 POSSIBILITIES IN BEAVER FARMING. 



By Vernon Bailey, Chief Field Naturalist, Division of Biological Investigation! 

 Bureau of Biological Survey. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Distribution 2 



Description 2 



Habits 5 



Damage by beavers 9 



Page. 



Beaver control 11 



Beaver farming 16 



Harvesting the crop 27 



Conclusions 27 



INTRODUCTION. 



Only two centuries ago beavers inhabited the greater part of the 

 North American Continent and were to the native people an im- 

 portant source of food and warm clothing. Their fur soon attracted 

 the white traders and trappers, and traffic in their skins became an 

 important factor in promoting the early settlement of the country. 

 Through the generations of intensive trapping that followed, the 

 beavers were greatly reduced in numbers and restricted in range until 

 they have been exterminated over much of their area. For the last 20 

 years they have been given special protection in many sections of the 

 country and after being long absent have been restored to some parts 

 of their old range, where under favorable conditions they have thrived 

 and increased rapidly. 



As a great part of the original range of the beaver is now under 

 cultivation, and fields and orchards replace the primeval forests, it is 

 obviously unwise to restore the animals to a±l of their original 

 waters, but there are still many localities where they could be in- 

 troduced without harm, and where, by storing water in the reservoirs 

 along mountain streams, they would do great good in helping prevent 



Notb. — This bulletin discusses methods of dealing with beavers when their operations 

 conflict with agriculture and other human activities, methods of transporting them to 

 localities where they may be conserved as a valuable and interesting natural resource, 

 and methods of utilizing them as an important supplement to the fur supply by establish- 

 ing them in suitable climates, particularly in certain waste lands and other areas unsuited 

 to agriculture. 



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