FUR ANIMALS 



1383 



Union of Soviet Socialist Kepublics is next, with an annual production 

 of 900,000 skins. About 30 years ago Karakul sheep raising was 

 started in what was then German Southwest Africa, and today the 

 farmers of that region are producing annually about 700,000 skins 

 and shipping them to the raw-fur markets of the world. Karakul 

 sheep are also being produced in the United States, but there are few 

 purebred animals in 

 this country. The 

 foundation stock 

 came from small im- 

 portations from 

 Bokhara in 1909, 

 1913, and 1914. Fur- JL 

 ther importations are |§ 

 next to impossi ble. 1 

 The Federal quaran- I 

 tine regulations pro- jj 

 hibit direct importa- 1 

 tion into the United 1 

 States, and it is too I 

 expensive to make in- I 

 direct importations by 1 

 holding the animals 

 for the required length 

 of time in another 

 country. 



In the face of this 

 situation the Bureaus 



° f A?- 1 ? 1 * 1 - 1 ] [ n i iustr ^ Figure 2.— The production of silver foxes on farms now 



and Biological Survey (1936) exceeds 20 o,000 annually, 



have been cooperating 



in a breeding experiment that promises favorable results. Since it 

 would be almost impossible to increase the breed to any appreciable 

 extent from present stocks of purebred animals, the Department has 

 been carrying on cross-breeding experiments with Karakul X Black- 

 faced Highland and Karakul X Corriedale at the National Agricul- 

 tural Research Center, at Beltsville, Md. 



The most spectacular and important development in fur-animal 

 production, however, is in silver-fox farming (fig. 2). This develop- 

 ment has taken place during the last 40 years, and though brief, the 

 history of the industry has been sensational. Two Canadian farmers 

 on Prince Edward Island, Charles Dalton and Robert Oulton, started 

 to experiment in 1894 with cross and black (silver) foxes, some cap- 

 tured and some purchased. They bred the foxes in captivity and 

 finally obtained some entirely black and silver puppies. The neigh- 

 bors soon learned of their secret operations and before long several 

 fox farms were established on the island. It was generally under- 

 stood that Dalton and Oulton were making money, but it was not 

 until the 1910 sales figures were published that the extent of their 

 profits became known. In that year they received for 25 pelts an 

 average price of $1,339. One pelt brought the all-time high price of 

 $2,627. This started a fox-farming boom and sent the prices of 



