Maintenance of the Fur Supply. 



5 



gardecl as having little or no value as fur became popular under 

 various trade names. A comparison of the highest prices at the 

 October sales in St. Louis in 1915 with those in 1919 illustrates the 

 remarkable increase in fur values: Beaver advanced in these four 

 years from $17 to $38.50, otter from $14 to $101, muskrat from $0.36£ 

 to $5.10, red fox from $15.20 to $64, fisher from $25.50 to $205, 

 skunk from $3.36 to $10.60, and marten from $15.20 to $145. (See 

 Pis. Ill and IV.) 



The crest of the rising wave of fur values was reached in the auc- 

 tion sales of February and March, 1920, when the following were 

 the highest prices paid : Weasel, $4.10 ; muskrat, $7.50 ; skunk, $12.25 ; 

 raccoon, $30 ; lynx, $66 ; red fox, $71 ; mink, $75 ; otter, $105 ; marten, 

 $201 ; and fisher, $365. These inflated values, which involved an 

 enormous amount of money for financing the fur industry, coming 

 at a time when banks were showing an inclination to withhold credit, 

 reacted on prices and caused a decline of about 25 per cent in the 

 May sales of 1920, although they still averaged higher than in the 

 spring of 1919. Fur continues to be fashionable, however, and 

 while prices may decline somewhat, they probably will be prevented 

 from going very low by the continued demand for fur and the reduced 

 numbers of fur-bearing animals. 



A concrete example of the rise in fur prices is afforded by the 

 actual record of one man's fur-lined overcoat. This coat, lined 

 with mink, in 1913 cost $500. After wearing the coat two years the 

 owner sold the mink lining for $1,000 and replaced it with nutria 

 at a cost of $150. Two years later, in 1917, he had the nutria lining 

 removed and sold it for $250. A muskrat lining was then put in 

 the coat at a cost of $55, which, in 1919, was in turn removed and 

 sold for $300. The original purchaser still has the shell. 



Although fur garments bring what seem exorbitant prices, the 

 trapper regards present fur values with the utmost complacency. 

 A fur buyer in Illinois recently told of two boys near Ottawa who 

 trapped along the Illinois River during the winter of 1919-20 and 

 sold $1,000 worth of skunk, muskrat, and mink skins, and further 

 stated that many other boys around the country did quite as well. 

 Alaskan trappers, in 1918, sold furs valued at $1,363,600. 



Fur animals are profitable to the Government as well as to indi- 

 viduals. The sealskins taken on the Pribilof Islands by the Bureau 

 of Fisheries in 1919, to the number of 27,821, were worth to the 

 Government nearly $4,000,000. From these same islands the Gov- 

 ernment harvested 938 blue foxes in 1919, the pelts having a value 

 of $165,000. The skins of bears, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, 

 and timber wolves killed by predatory animal hunters of the Biologi- 

 cal Survey in 1918 and 1919 brought nearly $160,000, and since these 

 operations began, in 1915, $234,762 has been turned into the Treasury 



