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YEARBOOK, 1937 



the farmer who could turn a few extra dollars without much trouble, 

 and a large army of wholesalers, factory owners and workers, and 

 retailers and their employees. 



Naturally a depletion of fur resources resulted. This cannot be 

 attributed, however, entirely to overeagerness in trapping. The dis- 

 appearance of the wilderness, natural habitat of the fur-bearing ani- 

 mals, was a major factor. Nevertheless, even today the trappers 

 and fur farmers of the United States receive $60,000,000 a year for 

 the raw furs they bring to the market. The annual retail turn-over 

 is several times that amount; in 1929, the peak year, it reached half 

 a billion dollars. The United States is in fact the largest consuming 

 market in the world. 



PRODUCTION AND DEMAND FOR FURS 



Today, instead of the United States being the world's chief source of 

 fur supply, this country does not produce enough to meet more than 

 a third of its own demand. Twice as many foreign as domestic furs 

 are now being used in this country, and the demand is increasing 

 rather than decreasing. To meet this demand, trappers still take fur 

 animals from the wild with the same extravagant disregard of main- 

 taining or increasing whatever supply is left. It is unquestionable 

 that our natural fur resources will be completely exhausted, unless 

 measures are taken to strike a proper balance between supply and 

 demand. 



In this connection there is much need for greater knowledge re- 

 garding production. At present no one knows what would constitute 



BEFORE the development of fox farming there apparently occurred 

 in the common red fox two distinctly different mutations to black 

 (silver) — one among foxes in Canada, giving rise to what are now 

 called standard silvers, and one among foxes in Alaska, giving rise 

 to Alaskan silvers. Beginning in 1928 the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey conducted research to determine the inheritance of the major 

 color types, and B. L. Warwick and the late Karl B. Hanson worked 

 out a hypothesis according to which two dominant genes, A and B, 

 and their recessives, a and b, accounted for all the principal color 

 variations. The results of experimental crosses and an analysis 

 of a large number of litters from recorded matings made by fox 

 farmers substantiated this hypothesis. By referring to a simple 

 genetic chart, it is now possible to determine the expected results of 

 any method of breeding the nine basic combinations of these two pairs 

 of genes. This research indicates the possibilities in the study of 

 the inheritance of fur color, which is of primary importance in 

 fox farming. 



