Trapping on the Farm. 



4S3 



The wild as well as the domestic animals or a farm 

 require food and shelter, and while the farmer is providing 

 us a matter of course for his domestic stock, he will, if wise, 

 be mindful also of the needs of his wild tenants. If he 

 regards his barns as factories for producing milk, meat, and 

 wool, he may as well consider the fox den in the hill pasture 

 and the big hollow sjcamore by the creek as fur factories 

 and preserve them accordingly. If he sells only his excess 

 domestic stock, he also will cease trapping the wild " stock " 

 while there are enough fur bearers left on his land to insure 

 another year's fur harvest. 



It is as logical to try to make farms produce more fur as 

 to make them produce more beef. The important point is 

 to have people understand the possibilities of increasing 

 their income in this way. When this point is fully appre- 

 ciated they will uphold State laws which forbid the use of 

 smoke, poison, or other chemicals in taking fur animals, and 

 forbid the destruction of dens and trapping on land of 

 another without written permission. Such laws are already 

 in force in several States, and will undoubtedly be operative 

 in all the fur-producing States in the near future. 



The measures thus far considered for increasing and im- 

 proving the fur output have all been along the line of con- 

 servation. Beyond conservation, and surpassing it. are 

 sound constructive measures by which a great and perma- 

 nent improvement in wild fur may be accomplished. So 

 thoroughly has the animal life of North America been in- 

 vestigated that we know in what region to find the best 

 foxes, the best skunks, the best raccoons, the best muskrats, 

 and the best of every other kind of fur bearer. Nearly all 

 these animals have been bred in confinement, and although 

 only two or three have actually been farmed, there is no 

 reasonable doubt that under favorable conditions all can be 

 propagated on fur farms for distribution on preserves in 

 State and National forests or other public domain, and on 

 private lands set aside by agreement with the owners, where 

 they will be fully protected and from which they will spread 

 when the natural limit to their abundance has been reached. 



Just as State game farms raise and distribute game for 

 sportsmen to shoot and State and Federal hatcheries raise 



