22 



is reported 10 per cent higher. The total for the spring sale of 1907 

 is 1,909 skins, and according to reports prices were again 10 per cent 

 higher than the previous year. One report contains the following 

 statement : " The fashion for this article continues, and the fine dark 

 skins are specially in demand. Prices, however, on the whole, average 

 about the same as last year. * * * the highest priced skin real- 

 ized £140" ($2,140). Furriers also state that changing fashion is 

 not likely to alter prices, for the market is world-wide, and a dimin- 

 ished demand in one or more countries is invariably offset by an in- 

 crease elsewhere. At present the higher-priced silver fox skins are 

 sold mostly to France and Russia, but the demand in the United 

 States is increasing. 



SUMMARY. 



From the foregoing it is evident that silver foxes can be and in 

 fact are being propagated in confinement. Like most new enter- 

 prises, fox raising is a business regarding which opinions vary. The 

 favorable facts are that silver foxes are easily and securely kept in 

 simple wire inclosures; that suitable food for them is cheap and 

 easily obtainable; that they are not subject to serious diseases, and 

 that their disposition and the quality of their fur can be improved 

 by selective breeding. Opposed to these are the unfavorable facts 

 that they are by nature suspicious, nervous, and not inclined to re- 

 pose confidence in man; and that, largely for these reasons, they do 

 not breed regularly and successfully, except when cared for by ex- 

 perienced persons more or less gifted in handling them. 



The number of persons now engaged in the business is relatively 

 small, and the work is still experimental, yet many of the initial diffi- 

 culties already have been overcome. Numerous minor failures seem 

 explainable in large measure, and are offset by several conspicuous 

 successes. It is therefore probable that under proper management 

 fox raising will be developed into a profitable industry, and it is 

 perhaps not too much to expect that a domestic breed of foxes 

 will be produced. Only time can show how far such expectations 

 will be realized, but present indications must be regarded as very 

 encouraging. 



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