DEC 24- 1320 



MAINTENANCE OF THE FUR SUPPLY. 1 



CONTENTS. 



The fur trade 4' 



Supply of furs waning 6 



I'rotective laws for fur animals 7 



Results of protection 8 



Fur farming 8 



Local attachments of animals. 



Fur animal preserves 



Summary 



Conclusion 



Tage. 

 9 

 10 

 12 

 12 



TO DIRECT ATTENTION to the great commercial importance 

 of fur; to emphasize the need of maintaining the supply, 

 which lately has been declining at an alarming rate; and to 

 point out ways by which this supply may not only be maintained as 

 to quantity but improved as to quality, is the purpose of this circular. 



The subject is discussed from the viewpoint of the farmer, to 

 whom fur-bearing animals, if rightly managed, will be a source of 

 interest and profit. The farmer should know that peltries are 

 prime only about two months in the .year, and that it is as unwise to 

 take them when unprime as it is to harvest unripe or overripe fruit. 

 He should know, also, that while foxes, skunks, minks, and several 

 other small fur bearers are carnivorous, very few of them ever taste 

 the flesh of poultrjr; the farmer who kills these animals at every 

 opportunity will, if consistent, kill his poultiw whenever a few hens 

 raid his garden. Among fur animals, as among men, the proportion 

 of criminals is relatively small. 



The unprecedented prices lately paid for peltries make this an 

 opportune time to urge a reasonable and practical attitude toward 

 fur bearers on the part of the farmer, who actually controls the 

 animals living on his property, although he is subject to the same 

 laws as are other people, so far as capturing them is concerned. 

 When once he accepts the fact that fur animals are worth tolerat- 

 ing — for he has neither to feed nor shelter them — he will take steps 

 to secure a dependable harvest of fur every year. He will not per- 

 mit poaching on his property and he will himself hold sacred the 

 dens of the fur bearers. A hollow sycamore or oak, of no value 

 for lumber and scarcely worth felling for firewood, may keep him 



1 Read before the second annual stated meeting of the American Society of Mam- 

 malogists, New York City, May 4, 1020. 



5238°— 20 3 



