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iires might have been turned into success by persistence; in fact, 

 no fox breeder has succeeded from the start. It is interesting to 

 note also that some men, while able to handle foxes well, do not de- 

 velop the business properly because they are not sufficiently venture- 

 some. Having raised a litter of excellent foxes, the enterprising 

 beginner looks to the future and selects the best of them to add to his 

 breeding stock. Some, however, can not withstand an offer of a few 

 hundred dollars for a good pelt when they think of the casualties 

 that may befall the animal bearing it, and so when the next season 

 comes around their breeding stock is neither larger nor better than 

 before. Among other causes which deter timid owners from retain- 

 ing many valuable foxes are the possibilities of theft and the serious 

 harm which may be inflicted by malicious trespassers. At present it 

 is not easy to establish ownership of an escaped fox in a country 

 inhabited by wild foxes. It is therefore possible for persons so in- 

 clined to contrive the escape of valuable animals, and when they are 

 free to kill them and market their skins. 



In the actual handling of foxes all minor difficulties may be easily 

 surmounted by practical men. Failure usually consists only in de- 

 tails relating directly to the breeding ; that is, the foxes will not mate, 

 they are infertile, or they fail to rear their young. Experienced 

 breeders attribute these difficulties to two principal causes : ( 1 ) Over- 

 feeding, causing the animals to become so fat that they do not breed, 

 and (2) lack of seclusion and quiet, causing excitability and appre- 

 liensive nervousness. These matters have already been discussed. 



BREEDING FOR IMPROVED STOCK. 



Hope for increased profits in fox raising lies almost entirely in 

 improving the stock by selective breeding. The darker the animal 

 the more valuable its pelt. Hence the object of every breeder should 

 be to produce pure black foxes, or as nearly pure black as possible. 

 To do this he must retain his darkest and most valuable animals for 

 breeding, selling only the poorer ones. The temptation to sell ani- 

 mals of high value is often very great, but in the long run such 

 animals are likely to be more profitable if kept for breeding. The 

 possibilities of modification and improvement by selection are fully 

 as great with wild animals as with domestic, and already have been 

 demonstrated in the case of foxes. Some of the highest priced fox 

 skins ever put on the market have been from animals reared in con- 

 finement and improved by selective breeding. 



Since the silver fox is only a color phase of the red fox, its prog- 

 eny might be expected often to revert to the red color. As a matter 

 of fact, however^ silver foxes bred in confinement have almost in- 

 variably produced only silvei' offspring. Moreover, it is believed 

 that in silver foxes of known red ancestry any tendency to red off- 



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