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



from this source. (See PL V.) In California the asset value of 

 wild fur bearers to the people of the State has been estimated at 

 $7,125,000, as the annual catch of fur in the State brings about 4 per 

 cent of this huge sum. By proper conservation it might readily be 

 doubled. 



Although America still produces a large quantity of fur, about 

 half the skins disposed of at American auction sales are of foreign 

 origin. The total value of furs imported into the United States in 

 1919 was more than $76,000,000. Our f oreign trade in this industry 

 is of no little importance, as fur is one of the few commodities that 

 Europe can sell us. It is estimated that the money spent in America 

 yearly for fur garments is well over $100,000,000. The gross trade 

 of fur merchants in New York alone during 1919, including exports, 

 imports, and domestic trade in raw and manufactured furs, amounted 

 to upwards of $375,000,000. 



SUPPLY OF FURS WANING. 



The traffic in fur is so extensive and profitable that fur dealers are 

 taking definite steps to keep up the demand for it. The manage- 

 ment of the largest auction fur sales company in America planned 

 to spend $100,000 during the year 1920 in a campaign designed to 

 persuade people to wear fur at all seasons of the year. A prominent 

 advertising agency was awarded the contract to direct this campaign 

 through some of the most popular and widely circulated magazines 

 in the United States. 



This movement to stimulate fur sales will inevitably tend to in- 

 tensify the pressure on fur-bearing animals, which have been gradu- 

 ally decreasing in numbers as a result of excessive trapping, clearing 

 of forests, and draining of marshes. Already beavers and martens, 

 two very important fur bearers, have been exterminated over a large 

 part of the country. Even in Alaska, the last stronghold of fur 

 bearers on United States territory, these animals became so scarce 

 that complete protection for them for a term of years was advocated 

 by Alaskan trappers. As a result of their express request a close 

 period was declared and is still in force. 



High prices of furs are equivalent to large bounties or rewards 

 for killing fur animals, and unless steps to counterbalance them are 

 taken immediately we may look to see these animals practically ex- 

 terminated in many places. Keports from raw-fur buyers indicate 

 that fur animals have decreased greatly during the last decade, sev- 

 eral of the estimates running as high as 50 per cent. From some of 

 the best fur regions in Canada come reports to the effect that fur 

 animals are extremely scarce. A raw-fur buyer in Boston, speaking 

 of muskrats, states that the supply in the winter of 1918-19 was 50 

 per cent short of normal and that of the following winter was 50 per 

 cent less again. In the State of Wisconsin, trappers in 1917 took 



