G 



farmers' BULLETIN 195. 



Disclosure of the results of the sales was the climax of the 



first stage in the development of fox farming. Persons who formerly 

 had known something of the business were now eager to engage in it. 

 Those having money invested it in foxes. Others mortgaged their 

 farms for the purpose or fitted up ranching facilities and boarded 

 foxes for a share of the progeny. How rapidly prices for breeding 

 stock advanced is well illustrated by the experience of one ranchman 

 who sold his first pair of cubs for $750, and other pairs successively 

 "for $3,000, $12,000, $13,000, and $14,000. In the fall of 1913 good 

 ranch-bred cubs 6 months old sold for from $11,000 to $15,000 a 

 pair. Pairs that had had large litters were valued at about twice as 

 much as 6-months-old cubs. 



The maintenance of this prodigious inflation of prices was due 

 mainly to stock companies, which originally were formed by individ- 

 uals without sufficient capital to engage in fox farming alone. 

 Almost immediately, however, companies were formed for the benefit 

 of those having foxes to sell. Attractive prospectuses containing 

 pictures of silver foxes, an account of the 1910 sale of pelts, and a 

 list of companies which had paid dividends of 20 to 500 per cent 

 were published, and stock sold through brokers and solicitors. Foxes 

 that would bring $12,000 or $15,000 a pair in the open market were 

 usually capitalized in companies at $18,000 or $20,000, which, after 

 allowing for commissions, installation of pens, and other ranch 

 necessities, left a tolerably safe balance from which to pay the first 

 year's running expenses. Another reason for the multiplication of 

 fox companies is found in the income to be derived from them by 

 brokers and promoters, and many companies were formed by men 

 having no other interest. The outbreak of the European war, in the 

 summer of 1914, interrupted and possibly ended these speculative 

 operations. Ranch-bred silver foxes have recently been advertised 

 for sale at from $500 to $1,000 a pair. In some of the western Prov- 

 inces and Territories of Canada, where only those foxes born or kept 

 for a year or more in captivity are allowed to be exported, prices 

 of wild half-grown silvers run from $150 to $250 each. 



In the pioneer days, when proper methods of handling foxes were 

 unknown, many failures resulted from ignorance and carelessness. 

 The excitement following the fur sales of 1910 hastened the improve- 

 ment of methods of feeding, handling, and breeding. It also broke 

 the monopoly, and caused a rapid distribution of foxes and of infor- 

 mation concerning them. Now, with a comparatively large number 

 of silver foxes in domestication, with a clearer understanding of their 

 successful management, and with a return of moderate prices for 

 breeders, a steady, healthy, and general development of silver fox 

 farming may be expected. 



