NITED^STATES 

 D'lPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE 



OF BICE Q^--^ 

 FORMATION^ 



(\ WITH miCIJ: SAM'S ITATURALISTS 



RELEASE Friday, Janu<ary 16, 1931, 

 NOT FOR PITBLICATION 



S'oeakin^ Time : 10 minutes. 



AITIJOUiICEMEIIT: Again our Wijds Man is with us. He has been out with 

 Uncle Sar.'s Naturalists of the Department of Agriculture trap^oing a 



few facts ahoat our fur supply, You say you are going to talk 



about fur, Mr. Wildsman? What fur? 



Winter time is fur time, 



I don't know about you, but I generally think of bears, and foxes, 

 and beavers and other of our bigger fur animals when anybody mentions 

 fur. And I usually picture the trapper mushing tlirough the North woods 

 on snow shoes. 



But Dr. J, E. Shillinger, of the Division of Fur Resources of the ' 

 Bureau of Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, tells me that the most important wild fur bearer in the United 

 States is the muskrat. And Louisiana is our leading fur State, That's 

 largely because of its many muskrats. In fact, the value of the fur 

 catch of Louisiana is more than that of all Alaska, if you don't coimt 

 the fur-seal industry of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. 



Speaking of seals, however. Dr. Shillinger tells? me that the muskrat 

 is sometimes thought of as something of a fur-seal itself. The fur known 

 to the trade as "Hudson Seal" is really muskrat in masquerade. It is 

 black muskrat that has had the long guard hairs plucked out , and then had 

 that soft under-fur clipped and dyed to make a fair imitation of a real 

 soal-sl-dn. 



Black muskrats are the most valuable kind. Most of tjacm are caught 

 in parts of New Jersey, Deleware, Mar;''' land, and Tirginia, You understand, 

 there arc three different types of raijiskrats in this country, Taero are the 

 very light, silvery-brown muskrats from the South, Then there is the 

 connon brown muskrat, and finally the norc valuable black muskrats. 



Dr, Shillinger is niaking a special study of muskrats, looking into 



