8 Department Circular 135, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



to report how many animals of each kind are taken. It would be 

 well for every State to require such reports, as this is a convenient 

 way of obtaining the statistics which are necessary to inspire people 

 with a desire and a determination to make fur a regular and valuable 

 farm and forest crop. 



RESULTS OF PROTECTION. 



Wild creatures quickly learn where they are safe from molesta- 

 tion, and in such places their fear of man disappears in a surpris- 

 ingly short time. (See PI. VI, B.) Wild waterfowl in city parks 

 throng around visitors who feed them as if they were domesticated. 

 The fact that animals very quickly learn to appreciate a sanctuary 

 was forcefully brought out a few years ago at Buffalo Park, near 

 Wainwright, Canada, when a protest was made by residents in the 

 vicinity that the park was recognized as a haven of refuge by coyotes. 

 When the farmers started to hunt them, all the coyotes made a bee- 

 line for the park, where they evidently knew they were safe. War- 

 dens who patrol Jasper Park and the adjacent country in northern 

 Alberta report that as soon as the hunting season arrives all the wild 

 animals take refuge in the park. 



A close period for beavers for several years past has virtually 

 made a temporary preserve of an entire Province, so far as beavers 

 are concerned. During the first open season the farmers there will 

 probably harvest about 15,000 beaver pelts. Now, instead of having 

 a catch of 15,000 the first year, a catch of 7,000 the second year, a 

 catch of 3,000 the third year, and then another closed period for 

 perhaps 10 years, suitable areas might be set aside where beavers 

 and other fur bearers would be continually protected and from which 

 would come an overflow that would furnish a reasonable supply of 

 skins every year continuously. (See PI. VI, A.) 



A striking example of the benefits derived from setting aside a 

 preserve for fur animals is to be found in Laurentides Park, in the 

 Province of Quebec, where many people, in the habit of hunting in 

 that region before the park was formed, found it very hard to keep 

 out after it was set aside as a sanctuary. Finally, however, they held 

 a conference and found on comparing notes that while they no longer 

 entered the park they were handling three times as much fur as when 

 they were admitted to it. 



FUR FARMING. 



The first landowners to appreciate the possibility of turning into 

 ready cash the furs produced annually on their land were those in 

 possession of marshes inhabited by muskrats. One of the most 

 progressive of the muskrat farmers counts the muskrat houses on his 

 marsh in fall and then decides how many animals may be safely 



