Maintenance of the Fur Supply. 



11 



and sufficient water was thus obtained to tide the crops over until the 

 fall rains came. 



The characters of North American mammals and their geograph- 

 ical distribution are now well known. It is known, for example, that 

 the largest minks come from northwestern Alaska, while the best- 

 furred minks are found from the Adirondacks to Nova Scotia and 

 northward to Labrador (see PL VII, B) ; that the largest well-furred 

 skunk is the northern plains animal, while the region in which the 

 largest proportion of black, well-furred skunks are found extends 

 from eastern Canada southward to Pennsylvania and northern Indi- 

 ana ; and that the so-called black muskrats of the fur-sales catalogues 

 come mainly from the marshes of Chesapeake Bay. 



It is thus possible to stock preserves with animals of the very 

 highest quality from the regions where such animals are found, or by 

 culling out the poorer specimens in localities where more than one 

 grade is found, as in the case of skunks. (See Pis. VIII and IX.) 

 It has been estimated that a year's catch of skunks in New York 

 State is worth $1,000,000. Only one-fifth of them are black or short 

 striped. If all were of this higher grade they would be worth 

 $3,000,000. Experiments in breeding skunks have shown that black 

 parents regularly produce black offspring. A preserve stocked with 

 black skunks would eventually double or treble the value of the catch 

 of skunks in the territory surrounding it. 



Furthermore, skunks are the best wild-animal friends the farmer 

 has, and there ought to be at least three times as many of them as 

 there now are. Almost any farmer might have two or three dozen 

 skunks at work for him destroying mice, grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 white grubs and furnishing him from $50 to $100 worth of fur a 

 year, if he would but respect their dens, keep his poultry in skunk- 

 proof yards, kill an old horse for them every fall, and be tactful 

 when he meets them in the evening. 



Federal, State, and private preserves might be stocked with fur- 

 bearing animals, as public and private waters are stocked with fish. 

 The Federal Bureau of Fisheries and numerous State fish and game 

 commissions, fish hatcheries, game farms, and game preserves have 

 been established for the benefit of sportsmen and of those who handle 

 and consume fish. The results of these movements for increasing the 

 supply of game and fish certainly justify the adoption of similar 

 means for multiplying fur-bearing animals, especially when the rela- 

 tive importance of fur and game, from the industrial and commercial 

 point of view, is considered. 



Objections are likely to be raised by poultry raisers and sportsmen 

 against a proposition to increase the numbers of fur animals, several 

 of which are more or less carnivorous. The poultryman's objection 

 may be fairly met by the fact that he can use dead fowls as bait for 

 these animals, and easily catch enough fur to pay for vermin-proof 

 poultry yards. The abundance of both fur and game prior to the 



