Maintenance of the Fur Supply. 



7 



over 800,000 muskrats, in 1918 they took less than 300,000, and in 

 1919 only about 150,000. These decreases occurred in spite of the 

 fact that there was an increase of 10 per cent each year over the 

 previous year in the number of trappers' licenses sold. An Illinois 

 writer in February, 1920, referring to the Kankakee River district, 

 asserted that the fur-bearing animal supply could not possibly 

 stand the amount of trapping induced by current prices for fur, and 

 that if the present condition should continue for a few years the 

 supply in settled districts would come to an end. 



PROTECTIVE LAWS FOR FUR ANIMALS. 



There is a loss of one-fourth of the full value of furs because so 

 many of them come to market unprime. It is generally agreed that 

 killing fur animals in the breeding season and before family groups 

 break up and disperse in fall is a wasteful practice. In consider- 

 ing ways for preventing such waste the first course that has sug- 

 gested itself is to invoke the aid of appropriate laws. Forty States 

 have enactments establishing close seasons for fur bearers and 16 

 States have given rare and valuable animals, as the beaver, otter, 

 and marten, the benefit of a close period covering five years or more. 

 Inasmuch as comparatively few of the unprime skins coming to 

 market come from the eight States without close seasons, it is evident 

 that in some States at least the laws protecting fur animals are either 

 ineffective or inadequate. 



In many States the open season for trapping is too long. It should 

 not cover more than two months. The open season for beavers and 

 muskrats should not begin earlier than January, as these animals 

 prime late, while for the other fur bearers it should not begin earlier 

 than Xovember nor end later than January. Uniform laws through- 

 out the United States prohibiting traffic in unprime skins of Amer- 

 ican fur animals, excepting wolves and wild cats, would be salutary. 

 Such laws would apply especially to dealers and would be wel- 

 comed by many of them; they are not only well aware of the need 

 for more and better fur, but have under consideration the propriety 

 of refusing to handle skins that are evidently taken out of season. 

 The attitude of intelligent fur dealers toward trapping out of season 

 is well illustrated by a full-page advertisement in a magazine devoted 

 to rural interests, paid for by a prominent fur house, and entirely 

 devoted to arguments for the capture of fur animals only when their 

 skins are prime and for obeying laws protecting them. Proprietors 

 and managers of large fur houses stand ready to support any reason- 

 able movement to keep up the fur supply. 



In several States the law provides that trappers must buy licenses 

 in order to support a warden system for the enforcement of laws 

 protecting fur animals. In a few States trappers are also required 



